Volleyball: Cash-strapped Nemo travel two players less
Captain. Aporu will lead Nemostars.
Reigning national men’s league champions Nemostars leave the country today for Sousse, Tunisia to compete at the Africa Club Volleyball Championship.
Nemostars are the most consistent Ugandan representatives on the continental scene and head to their sixth consecutive event.
Coach Andrew Okapis’ side travel to North Africa short by two players to make a full squad of 12.
This after the club failed to raise enough money to facilitate a full team. But, club patron Neko Muduse-Ojala believes the team will put up a good show in Tunisia.
“In the last edition held in Egypt, we would have played in the semifinal but the boys went to play the quarterfinal game with their luggage thrown out of the hotel for nonpayment,” Muduse-Ojala recalls.
“Two hours after their quarterfinal loss, I got the money and sent it. They won the next placement game and we finished sixth overall.”
This time, Nemostars travel with less than the total amount required to pay for their accommodation and feeding but ‘Old Coach’ hopes that if they are allowed to check into the hotel, he will fundraise the rest in the next two or three days.
An air ticket costs US$900, upkeep $700, visa fees $23, and Covid-19 test in Tunis goes for $80 per individual. This is $1,703 (Shs6.1m) per player.
For a team of 10 players and one official, the sum comes to Shs67.5m. The team will spend 12 days in Sousse, located 140 km south of the capital Tunis.
“I have written messages to the National Council of Sports bosses asking for assistance. Apart from Don Rukare, the chairman, who has always given me some money and promised again, the rest read my messages and they do not respond,” Muduse-Ojala says.
A total of 24 teams will take in Africa’s volleyball showpiece tournament that runs from April 16-28.
NEMOSTARS CONTINGENT
Coach: Andrew Okapis
Players: George Aporu (captain), Smith
Okumu, Leonard Wandera, Savier
Atama, Jonathan Tumukunde, Steven
Wandera, Fahad Zungu, Bernard Malinga,
Emmanuel Elanyu and Walter Aloka
