On Sunday 22nd, the JT Junior Lady Jaguars defeated the Nkumba Lady Marines 73-66.

However, the Lady Marines weren’t happy because JT Junior featured 3 players who also play for the senior team, the JT Lady Jaguars, in the NBL.

As thus, it got us wondering, are teams utilizing the flaws in the U21/Double licensing law?

Ahead of the 2026 NBL Season, a new law regarding U21 players was introduced. It states;

Double licensing: All NBL Teams shall/must register at least one (1)  U21 on the final roaster. The said player must be a Ugandan National aged between seventeen (17) and twenty-one (21) years of Age. This player is eligible to play a minimum of Five (5) games during the season and shall be licensed to also play in the Lower league by a team that  agrees to sign him or her.

This law was mainly targeting NBL teams so that they could give an opportunity to young players. However, Teams in the Lower leagues are utilizing the flaws in the law.

Some of the flaws

The law states that a team shall/must have at least one U21 player. What if a team has more than one? Are they all eligible for double license?

If say all the players are eligible for double license, can they all go to one team. That is what the JT Jaguars did, they got players from the top team and sent them all to their lower side. What they did is similar to what happens in the NBA G-League.

There is another question, if an NBL team has multiple U21 players, can they be eligible for double license if they get different teams in the Lower Division?

Also, how many double license players can a team have in the Lower Division?

If it’s one, the law never stipulated that. If it’s many, then can they come from the same team in the NBL or different teams?

Another problem came with the age. Who is an under U21 player? Is it a person who is less than 21 years or a person who hasn’t clocked 22 years? The league is not clear on that.

Why that is important is because a person like Amy Chan is over 21 years. As per the documents, she was born 12-09-2004. This means she is 21 years and 6 months old. Does this make her an U21 player?

Also, Mary Nambogo was born on 1st January 2005. This means she is 21 years and 3 months old. Is she still classified as a U21 player?

However, the law never clearly stipulated the age in which a person should belong.

Imagine this scenario, a player is 20 years at the time of registration but gets to 21 or over during or just before the season starts. Are they still eligible?

What if the person is under 17 years before the season starts and makes 17 during the season, are they still eligible?

The law has very many grey areas which need to be clarified soon. If this doesn’t happen, there is a scenario in which we shall see an influx of NBL players in the lower divisions which could undermine the initial reason why the law  introduced.