Uganda to host Fina president

Game Changer. Fina's new president Al-Musallam charts a fresh route forward. PHOTO / AGENCIES

What you need to know:

  • Al-Musallam was voted to replace Uruguayan Julio Maglione last July in Qatar at the body's congress that also overwhelmingly endorsed former USF president Donald Rukare and 15 others to the Fina Bureau and current president Moses Mwase to the reforms committee.

Uganda Swimming Federation (USF)'s pursuit for a pool will be top of the agenda when Fina, the sport's world governing body, President Husain Al-Musallam visits the country on March 17.

Al-Musallam was voted to replace Uruguayan Julio Maglione last July in Qatar at the body's congress that also overwhelmingly endorsed former USF president Donald Rukare and 15 others to the Fina Bureau and current president Moses Mwase to the reforms committee.

The Kuwaiti leader Al-Musallam is a former international swimmer and airline pilot. He received quick plaudits in that congress for his immediate decision to raise prize money for athletes by $2.4 million (over Shs9bn).

He also promised to take no salary or allowances from Fina and went on to cut per diems of Bureau members by half in a bid to cut on administrative expenses and improve on athletes' welfare.

Insidethegames.biz reported then that Fina spent over $31m on administration in the four years prior to the election - a sizeable difference from the $24m spent on development funding.

Federations like USF could only apply for up to $25,000 (about Shs95m) per year from Fina.

Al-Musallam has been on a world tour that will now bring him to the Africa (Cana)'s Zone III region, which should be eager to press for game-changing development projects.

Debut visit
"He is coming for his first tour to Africa and will visit Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania, Burundi and Djibouti. He will meet with swimmers, sports leaders and that makes it a unique opportunity to bring discussions on the wider aquatics family.

We will discuss possible areas for development. He could have gone to other parts of the continent and that is why we are happy to receive him in our zone," Rukare, who is president of the Zone, told Daily Monitor.

For USF, Mwase: "the idea of the visit is to highlight what Uganda has done to promote swimming and the recognize the role Fina has played in achieving that. But we also have to share the challenges we face.

We don't want to raise many problems but our biggest issue right now is the aquatic centre. We have the land (at Namboole Stadium) but we need a few commitments (on funding)."