A lot has been said about Uganda’s representative at the 2026 Basketball Africa League  (BAL).

First and foremost, I shall put everything into perspective before I give my thoughts.

Usually, the champions of the NBL season is the one supposed to represent Uganda at the BAL.

However, this year, the season delayed to start and due to some breaks because of the FIBA Men’s and Women’s Afrobaskets, it even delayed more.

This means that we are not yet sure who will represent Uganda in the Road to BAL.

What Happened?

On 8th September, the Namuwongo Blazers CEO Mr. Daniel Muttu wrote to FUBA seeking clarification on Uganda’s Representation in the BAL.

Some of his concerns were about what happened in 2023 when FUBA announced that the champions would not be the representative at the BAL.

Fast forward to now, we could be headed to a similar situation.

According to the Namuwongo Blazers, they never got a timely response and so they wrote to FIBA and BAL.

After that, FUBA then responded to them saying that since the deadline had been 5th September, they fronted the City Oilers who were the winners in 2024.

On 16th September, the Blazers made an appeal regarding Uganda’s BAL Nomination.

FUBA then summoned the final 4 teams, the City Oilers, Namuwongo Blazers, UCU Canons and Sommet for a meeting which shall take place on Friday 19th.

While the FUBA President Mr. Nasser Sserunjogi was on NBS Sport, this is what he had to say about the matter.

“We received the communication from FIBA and BAL that we needed to send a representative for BAL. We had informed them at our league hadn’t ended.

So we asked , can you please give us more time as we wait to get the champion? They have never responded.

So, ultimately, we are going to be forced to send last year’s Champion to represent us at the BAL for this season and the winner for this year will represent us next season until we align our league to be able to finish in August around there ”

My Concerns

First and foremost, we’ve seen this before.

In 2023, FUBA made a decision to send the winners of the 2022 edition, the City Oilers and ultimately the Blazers pulled out in protest.

FUBA said that they wanted to align the local calendar with the International one so that the league can end early and we have a champion in time.

This only worked for one year, 2024.

Fast forward to 2025, we are back to were we were 2 years ago and FUBA is going back to what they did then.

That decision wasn’t fair as they did not consult the stakeholders which was abysmal to say the least.

Secondly, why City Oilers?

This year, the Oilers have been struggling and you giving them a free ticket to represent Uganda seems fishy?

What are you thanking them for?

If they were the number one team at the time, just like they were in 2023, you can make a case.

But now, no!

Truth is, just awarding the Oilers a thing they have not worked for is unfair to other teams.

There are more fair ways to go about a decision like that, an area on which FUBA failed in 2023.

That cannot be repeated.

The best way to go about this is to invite the final 4 teams for a meeting and they agree on a way forward.

As of now, FUBA has summoned the teams and we shall be hoping that they can agree on something.

One of my other concerns is, shall we ever align?

We were told in 2023 that the league was going to be aligned.

This only happened for one year and we are back.

What guarantee do we have that the league will ever be aligned?

The FUBA President said that the Oilers will represent this year and the champions of this year represent in the next edition until they align.

That means that one team, a winner in the future, will miss out, when the time of alignment comes.

Is that fair?

Also, what if say the winners of this year miss out next year because that is the year that FUBA chooses to align, again?

Would that also be fair?

When you think about this deeply, there is something none of us can comprehend.

If FIBA and BAL told FUBA about a deadline of submission of a team, why wasn’t that information shared earlier so that teams could find a solution.

But now, it’s already too late, if at all there is/was a deadline. A way out has to found.

Since FUBA has summoned the final 4 teams, we shall be awaiting for what they agree on.

The NBL Playoffs resume on Friday 19th with 2 games in action.

UCU Canons will be looking to tie the series as they face the Namuwongo Blazers.

The City Oilers shall also be hoping they can level the series and keep their hopes of winning am 11th champions alive.

Fixtures

UCU Canons vs Nam Blazers 7:00 pm

Sommet vs City Oilers  9:00 pm