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Unresolved sports questions awaiting 2025

National Council of Sports (NCS) General Secrretary Patrick Ogwel. PHOTO/JOHN BATANUDDE 

What you need to know:

How has the best team in England reduced into a mere bunch of great players, who can’t lift themselves above the abyss?

Joshua Cheptegei lived the ultimate dream of winning 10,000m Olympic gold in the most convincing fashion, East Africa’s Pamoja bid for hosting the 2027 Afcon succeeded, and so much more happened in an eventful 2024. But here are some of the unresolved questions that may be answered in 2025.

Shall boxing’s Olympic future be saved?

Since the International Olympic Committee (IOC) expelled the International Boxing Association (IBA) from the Olympic Movement in June 2023, the future of boxing at the Olympics became more uncertain.

After handling the boxing tournaments at the Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024 Olympics, IOC declared that it needs a legitimate international body to take over the role or boxing won’t happen at future Games.

The IOC further arm-twisted national boxing federations into abandoning IBA—the sport’s international governing body since 1946—and joining World Boxing, a breakaway faction that only has 60 members compared to IBA’s 199.

And the decision must be done as early as possible in 2025, or boxing will be left out of the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics.

In November, IBA gave federations the leeway to join World Boxing without losing IBA membership. It’s a huge temptation. The egoistic IOC might block it. But for now it looks like the shortcut to enticing conflicted federations into joining World Boxing and give it Olympic legitimacy. Whatever the case, shall boxing’s Olympic future be saved?

Shall pro and amateur boxing finally sit under one roof?

According to the National Sports Act 2023, every sports discipline should be governed by one federation. To most sports it’s a nonissue. But with parallel bodies running amateur and professional boxing, there’s much to do to bring Uganda’s second-most successful sport under one governing body.

Currently, NCS—the national regulator of all sports federations and associations—recognises only the Uganda Boxing Federation (UBF) though the Uganda Professional Boxing Commission (UPBC) is also allowed to operate. But since the new law was passed in September 2023, UBF’s Moses Muhangi talks as if the transition is as simple as placing the professional boxing management under the UBF.

Truth is, unless the system is rigged (it’s not news in Uganda) it may even require a complete reset of whatever boxing administrations that exist to forge a new unified body.

That the transition may leave some out and require others to seek new mandates, some may try to sabotage it. If it happens seamlessly it will be a big surprise.

How did Ogwel survive?

Since 2021 there’s been allegations about the National Council of Sports (NCS) general secretary Patrick Ogwel’s corrupt tendencies. But soon, the strongman rolled up his sleeves to fight back. As the dirty linen was thrown in a public square, he dominated his opponents, aka accusers.

A parliamentary committee inquiry failed to implicate Ogwel over bribery and kickbacks but in April 2023 the Inspector General of Government (IGG) ordered him to refund Shs100m to the Uganda Netball Federation (UNF).

But ironically, in a matter of weeks, his chief accusers Sarah Babirye, the UNF president and Moses Muhangi, the Uganda Boxing Federation president, went to jail on accountability and fraud charges. Babirye was suspended from office to ease investigations. Fast forward, she lost the office entirely, but her fight recently won her the 2024 Blueprint for Free Speech award, an honour won by outstanding whistle-blowers across the globe.

Yet this would have felt sweeter had Ogwel been brought to book or kicked out of NCS.

But here we are, stuck in a dilemma only insiders can fathom. When Ramadhan Ggoobi, the permanent secretary for the Ministry of Finance declared Ogwel unfit for the NCS accounting officer role, in a July 25 letter, many started scripting Ogwel’s ‘obituary’. Only Babirye seemed unexcited about her tormentor’s imminent fall.

She was right. Ogwel is still at NCS. In his response, NCS chairman Ambrose Tashobya reminded Ggoobi that according to article 39 of the National Sports Act 2023, NCS’s general secretary and accounting officer roles are played by the same person concurrently.

Tashobya, ignored our queries during the crisis, thus begged that Ogwel retains the roles, pending guidance from the Education and Sports minister, Janet Museveni. Yet the following day, Tashobya backtracked on his pleas and wrote a letter elevating Mohammed Bbaale to acting accounting officer. Though not mentioned in the July 31 letter, Ogwel stayed general secretary, a potential fertile ground for influence peddling.

Anonymous sources quoted him bragging that “I am still here for the next six years.”

This begs questions: was Tashobya hypocritical about the National Sports Act 2023? If not, how then did he split the two roles to keep Ogwel around? How independent is Bbaale when Ogwel is still around? Isn’t Ggoobi’s word final? How much evidence is needed to indict Ogwel? How many layers of bulletproof protection does he have?

Man City coach Pep Guardiola. PHOTO/REUTERS 

Shall Pep last the distance?

Amazing how times change. Until November, you would only ask: by how many goals has City won? How many did Haaland score? And that’s been Manchester City’s story since Pep Guardiola took over the Etihad club in the 2016 summer.

But nowadays, since that 2-1 loss to Bournemouth in the Premier League on November 2, victory became the exception as losing points became the new normal for the club that has bossed the league six times in the last seven seasons and won a treble in 2023.  

At first it seemed too surreal. But picking just two wins and three draws from 13 matches in all competitions is more than enough evidence of a team in crisis.

In 2018-2019, Pep’s third season in charge, City conceded just 23 goals in 38 league games. This season, they conceded 25 in just 17 games. They are out of the EFL Cup, 14 points behind league leaders Liverpool (who have played a game less) and 10 points behind the Merseyside club in the Uefa Champions League, with two games to the end of the first round.  

Pep admitted he never thought it was difficult to win one single game “but now we feel it.”

The season-ending injury to midfield commander Rodri is one genuine excuse. But even if the controversial Ballon d’Or winner miraculously returns, fully fit and in-form tomorrow, few believe he can fix City’s malaise instantly.

How has the best team in England reduced into a mere bunch of great players, who can’t lift themselves above the abyss?

Can one or two winter recruits save the Titanic? Or shall Pep, despite signing a new two-year contract, throw in the towel before the next summer? When he faced a similar slump in the 2011-2012 season, surrendering the La Liga title he had won thrice in a row, to Real Madrid, the most successful Barcelona manager walked away.