Just the thought of this whole chaos is very annoying but as things stand, the YMCA Lady Hamstars have been penalized, taking away 8 of their 11 wins in the first round for ‘apparently’ violating the foreign player law.

The Lady Hamstars finished the first round with a perfect 11-0 record but got news that 8 of their games had been given as forfeitures.

Why is this annoying?

In the 2024 season, we had a similar case involving the Rezlife Saints and Kampala Rockets.

The Competitions Council made a ruling but after hearing from the appeals tribunal, the rulings were overturned and Rezlife retained their wins.

One would think that we learned our lessons but guess what, we never do.

If you check on the portal, YMCA registered 4 foreign players namely; Agnes Njeri, Akinyi Adhiambo, Florence Ogundha and Caren Ochieng.

However, they also registered other players, who are believed to be Foreigners, as Ugandan. These include; Rose Adhiambo, Amy Chan Grace and Adongo Edisa.

So YMCA knew the rule but they tried to be sleek and go past it.

However, you can’t play without being cleared and this is where problems started.

For each and every player to play in the league, you must be cleared presenting a National ID for Nationals while foreigners present a passport.

The question is, who cleared the YMCA players to play and what documents did the YMCA management present?

If the documents they presented were accepted by FUBA, then it is unfair to punish them yet the situation could have been prevented from reaching this far.

In case YMCA presented false/fraudulent documents, then they deserve whichever punishment comes their way.

An inside source revealed that the YMCA Lady Hamstars did not present documents for these players and they were trying to stall and get some documentation from them.

If this is the case, the blame is on FUBA.

According to the 2025 FUBA handbook, Section 3.01 (h), the competitions Council has the authority to deny a player participation in FUBA Competitions if the player does not abide by the rules and regulations of eligibility.

If the players were not eligible, CC should have stopped them but since they let them play, you can’t back track and punish the team.

Another source revealed that YMCA was prohibited from using the extra foreign players but they went ahead and did.  

If that’s the case, they deserve the punishment.

This case is stupid so to say because after we saw last year, you’d think that we learned and this wouldn’t happen again, but here we are.

With YMCA being the Juggernaut in the league, the other teams will be hoping that the decision is not overturn as this will increase their chances of qualifying to the NBL.

It is unclear when the second round will be starting but all eyes and ears from the top teams are waiting for the verdict from the Appeals Tribunal regarding this matter.