Following the news of the removal of teams that hadn’t paid from the ongoing Division One and Two leagues, there was panic as many players were starting to look for other options, team owners and managers were also trying their best to liaise with FUBA so that they could work things out.
Some teams were able to negotiate with FUBA to clear their due after the deadline and others haven’t been able to balance their accounts with FUBA.
On Friday 17th, FUBA wrote a letter to all team managers detailing when the league shall be resumed. This same letter also stated that all teams that had been removed earlier have been reinstated but with a few conditions.
All the teams that were cleared by FUBA shall have their games as usual but those that haven’t been shall not play the game and the game shall be a walk-over.
Teams that haven’t been cleared include Entebbe Archers, Kampala University, Diamonds in the sun, UMU Flames, Amazon Rhinos, and Nkumba Lady Marines for Division One. Division two teams include Emperors, Kings Basketball, Charging Rhinos, and Sky Jammers.
A new fixture has been drawn and the league shall resume 25th May. The teams that haven’t been cleared have also been given a deadline of 25th May and in case they haven’t done so by then, walkovers shall be awarded.
Context
During an X (formerly Twitter) Space hosted by 2bob Sports on 14th May, the FUBA CEO Marcus Kwikiriza talked about the situation in the lower League Divisions and the solution FUBA had come up with.
After the announcement of the deal that FUBA and Castle Lite went in, FUBA was to receive 200m cash and Marcus said that most of that money would be used to run operations of the NBL.
“What had been happening is, the NBL had no money, we had no sponsor. Which means whatever little money we had been getting whether is gate collections or National Council of Sports, was to solve NBL” he said.
“Now that NBL has some money to run its operations with another sponsor on board, what we had had in the Kitty whether it’s from gate collections and else can help support Division one and two”
“The good news is, with NBL getting some money, there will be some money left to help out Division One and Two. Maybe we reduce the subscription fees by 20, 30, 40, or 50 percent” he added.
It is not yet certain if FUBA took the route of reducing the subscription fees but what is certain is the fact that the league shall be resuming on 25th May and a lot of games shall be lined up.
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