On 22nd April, we published a article written by Mukono Hawks player and former CURA General Secretary, Musanjufu Benjamin, about, the financial woes that clubs in the regions experience and how grassroots Rugby is being affected.
The article and post on X, gathered a lot of attention and many people reached out to Benjamin and myself, the editor of 2bob Sports, disputing some of the information while others were in shock at what was happening.
Surprisingly, most of the people who reached out had not read the full story but rather the post on X and some based on hearsay.
Dealing with some of these people was/is hard because they do not want to accept the reality even though they see it with their own eyes.
In the article, Benjamin was trying to address a number of issues but all the people who reached out were not caring about those but rather the numbers.
So let’s dive into the numbers.
The initial numbers that are mentioned in the article did not come out of nowhere and as a matter of fact, all the concerned parties are aware of them.
However, they did not tell the whole story.
If you look at the Initial article, the breakdown is as below;
- Western – 6,279,000
- Eastern – 2,745,000
- Northern – 24,4950,000
- Central – 2,362,500
- Officials – 14,118,500
If you total it up, the sum is 50 million Uganda Shillings and that is the total budget for the regions.
However, so many people were asking for the breakdown of the figures, more so the 14+ million.
On consultation with the URU accounts person, they revealed new numbers, which are not very far from the original.
The caveat is that the money for the officials is broken down into the different regions.
The Real Budget
Central – 6,398,375
Western – 9,639,875
Eastern – 6,105,875
Northern – 27,855,875
Of this, about 50% has been disbursed while the rest has yet to be sent out.
In the article that Mr. Musanjufu wrote, he highlights a number of issues and one of them is the fact that officials got more than the teams.
On paper, it seems that officials are benefiting more but if you think about it, they actually aren’t.
On the opening weekend of the Central Uganda Rugby Championship, 6 officials were sent out to handle the 4 games.
4 referees and 2 Match Commissioner, each trio working on 2 games.
In the preceding games, only 4 officials were sent out.
2 referees and 2 match officials, a pair working on 2 games a day.
If you critically think about it, an official had to committee their entire day to Rugby and what do they get?
As payment, each received 85,000 for all the games.
So if you do some mathematics, that’s about 42,500 for a game and if you put transportation and lunch, the money even becomes meager.
That means that for a whole day, an official will make about 30,000 per game and to be honest, that’s very little compared to the amount of work, time and commitment they input.
Back to the subject, do teams get small money?
The answer is a big fat yes and it seems unfair for them.
For the first 6 weeks, teams (CURA) received 1,885,000 as transport subsidy.
If you do the maths, 7 men’s and 4 women’s teams, if you split the 1,885,000, that means each gets about 30,000 for a game.
But that is not how things work as teams are given transport subsidies based on the distance from their place and the venue of the games.
A team like Mukono Hawks has to travel from Mukono to Entebbe. For just 1 person, you spend about 8,000-10,000, from Mukono to Entebbe.
If you carry a team of about 25 people, that means you spend more than 200,000 and that is going to the venue alone.
A team like that can end up spending more than 500,000 on transport alone, yet they receive less than 100,000.
For teams in Northern Uganda, they get more money than other regions, understandably so, because of the very long distance they have to travel to play games.
In the Central regions, the teams are not very far away from each other, as most are in Kampala and this explains why the money is less.
This is what Musanjufu was trying to emphasize in his article. Teams need to get more.
Teams and players are suffering and this kills the development of grassroots Rugby.
Oftentimes, players, team owners, and fans have to rely on passion in order to keep the game alive but the question is, is it sustainable?
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