After 27 years of competing in Uganda Basketball leagues, A1 Challenge has finally called it quits.

This comes after the FUBA Competitions Council ruled that A1 Challenge had committed fraud (falsifying of documents) and was punished with demotion to the Lower league (FUBA Division One).

The Club wrote in a statement;

“After 27 years of dedicated competition and contribution to the National Women’s Basketball League, A1 Challenge has made the difficult decision to withdraw from all FUBA leagues.

This decision comes in response to FUBA’s email regarding the club’s demotion to the Women’s Division One”

In a statement released by FUBA, they address the request for A1 Challenge to postpone their fixtures and also their fraud case.

“A1 Challenge wrote to FUBA Competitions Council requesting for a 10 day extension to sign additional players and also have the A1 Challenge league fixtures postponed to a later date to finalize their roster.”

However, A1’s request was referred to the EXCOM but it was rejected on grounds of lack of sufficient reasons for the extension and that they had failed to hit the deadline for player registration.

A1 Challenge also had a case of fraud, where they allegedly signed 3 players on their roster, but the players denied having been contracted.

A party in the club is said to have forged signatures of 3 players.

After a meeting between A1 Challenge, the said players, and the Competitions Council, the Council found that the appended signatures were forged and A1 Challenge could not prove otherwise.

“The Competitions Council therefore made a ruling based on the Competitions rules and regulations 2025, Article VII Code of conduct section 7.02(I) on Fraud, Impersonation, presenting forged documents such as license cards, ID and any documents to FUBA with a Sanction:

“A person found guilty of section 7.02 (a) (I) will be suspended foe the remainder of the season from all competitions organized by FUBA. In case of a club, it shall be demoted to the Lower league”“

A1 Challenge has/had the right to appeal to the Arbitration Tribunal but they sought to withdraw from all FUBA leagues henceforth.

In the club statement, they reveal their next course of direction.

“Moving forward, the Club’s focus will remaining on empowering young girls through sports fostering transformative change in their lives” they said.

“We remain committed to fostering the growth and development of women’s basketball and will continue to explore new opportunities to contribute to the sport” they concluded.

This is now the third team to withdraw from FUBA leagues this season after both Our Savior sides did so prior to the start of the season.

The impact that A1 Challenge has had in women’s basketball over the years is immense and this is not the fairy tale ending they would have hoped for.

Nonetheless, they will continue to do their other work and who knows, maybe they could return to the league some day.

As things stand, only 11 teams are expected to play in the NBL.

It is not yet known whether the players who were on the A1 Challenge can be allowed to move to new teams as the deadline has already passed.