For a very long time, fans, players, and coaches have been complaining about officiation and this time around FUBA has decided to add something which will be very interesting in the 2025 NBL.

While speaking to the FUBA Vice President Technical Mr. Baker Kyambadde, he revealed that there is going to be potential suspension of referees who do not perform according to the standard.

One of the major things that is going to be done is continual assessment of referees.

Just like in Rugby where match assessors have become part and parcel of the officiation, FUBA is going to add referee assessors and these are going to play a crucial role in checking the quality of officiation.

“The accountability levels for referees are (going to be) high because if you don’t perform very well, the assessors will not give you a chance for nomination with the competition council, and if you’re not nominated, you’ll not officiate” Mr Baker said.

He also emphasized on the strictness that they’ll have with referees,

“For referees, it’s going to be very simple, you’ll get suspended and if you can’t become better, you’re out for the season”

“We are very keen on seeing the quality of the officiation taking place (go up)” he concluded with their objective for their decision.

In response to the potential suspension of referees, the President Uganda Basketball Referees Association David Senfuma had this to say.

“You can’t expect a 40 liter of milk from a cow that you don’t feed well.

The penalties ought to be equal to the rewards.

If the rewards are up there, the penalties are worth it” he said

“If the penalties are not equivalent to the rewards, then it won’t be practical” he added

He also commented the arrears that the referees still have from the 2024 season,

“We still have arrears from the 2024 (Division One) season”

He concluded with a plea,

“my plea to leadership is that they should be men of their words”

If you remember well, FUBA had promised that “all pending arrears for the 2024 season would be cleared by the end of February 2025”

If indeed they haven’t been cleared, the referees have something to be aggrieved about and FUBA has to act accordingly very fast.

Whether suspensions will happen or not is yet to be seen but what FUBA has done shows intentionality.

For a long time, some people thought that referees were untouchable but with this, stakeholders hope that referees can be held accountable and that the quality of officiation will be very high.

Of course, no one wishes for a person to be suspended from their job but if you can’t deliver, you have to be put in line.

The other thing that was highlighted was the potential suspension of coaches

“The reports coming in from the in charges are going to be very key. As a coach, if you don’t organize yourself in the manner in which you express yourself in a game, you could be suspended” Mr Baker Kyambadde highlighted.

Last year during the 3rd place playoff between KIU Rangers and JT Lady Jaguars, we saw the KIU Rangers coach continously argeu with officials, told his team to leave the court, which they did momentarily but came back.

Is that the kind of behavior that warrants suspension?

The grounds are not very clear on what warrants suspension and it will be interesting to see if this will be effected.

The NBL tips-off on 21st March and the enthusiasm is very high for all the stakeholders.