Albert Ahabwe

The MTN sponsored Federation of Uganda Basketball Association (FUBA) National league has been postponed again.

The league, which was scheduled to tip-off on last Friday April 9th has been moved a week further to April 16th due to what the federation says are ‘simple reasons of teams’ readiness’.

Referring to the Sprite Challenge tournament which was held over the past two weeks and ended on the Easter weekend, William Musaazi, the technical committee chairman said that some of the teams which had participated were tired and had asked for an extra week to rest and prepare adequately for the league start.

“The pre-season tournament took a toll on the players and now some teams are complaining of injuries and fatigue. Since we need a highly competitive league, we have to take concerns like these into account and the short rest period.” He said.

Besides the fatigue of players, the FUBA boss also intimated that some of the university teams had asked the federation to grant them an extension to enable their players, most of whom are students to prepare for tests and exams.

“In the past, we have had these teams complain about their players being on holiday or doing their exams which interrupted the fixture sometimes or left them with thin squads. But we shall now consider their reasoning and grant this leave. The league therefore starts on the April 16th.” Musaazi said.

However, there are rumors that the delay to the delay might have been caused by other factors all together. A reliable source within FUBA who declined to be quoted intimated that there had been a stand-off between referees and the federation regarding unpaid salaries and allowances that dated as far back as mid-last season.

“The refs have not been paid and for some of them, it dates as far back as mid last season. So they were called for a meeting last week and they boycotted it citing non-payment. They have given an ultimatum to FUBA to pay them lest they cease to officiate in all FUBA activities. This is the real reason why the league has been re-scheduled.” The source said.

Efforts to reach the chairman of the referees commission Peter Kirabo were futile as his phones could not be reached.

This is not the first time the league faces such uncertainties; the federation has cultivated a culture of altering schedules of the league start for a long time now. Opening dates have been changed for up to three or four times in many seasons due to different factors.