The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The Uganda Netball Federation incurred a debt of 1 billion shillings to facilitate the national team’s participation at the 2019 Netball World Cup.
The World Cup attracted 16 national teams including Uganda that finished seventh and was won by New Zealand.
Following hiccups in the preparations for the World Cup, the Ugandan team and some technical officials travelled a week to the World Cup and therefore spent 18 days in Liverpool, England.
The federation facilitated a total of 30 people who included 14 players, 16 government and technical officials.
The federation incurred the World Cup debt because it received borrowed funds from the National Council of Sports due to failure by the government to release the required funds.
The UNF Treasurer, Yusuf Kamulegeya says that the federation requested for 2.1 billion shillings for the World Cup activities including air tickets, visa fees, residential training’s and also build-up games, allowances and meals before and during the World Cup.
However, a week to the World Cup, the government had not released funds, which Kamulegeya says prompted the governing body, National Council of Sports to borrow shillings 1 billion to ensure that the team are facilitated.
The shillings 1 billion was spent on allowances which took shillings 300 million because each of the players and officials received shillings 10 million while the remaining funds were spent on meals and incentives – shillings 12 million in total for the players, with each getting about shillings 920,000.
The Uganda Netball Federation President, Susan Anek, says that Ugandans living in the United Kingdom organized a dinner for the delegation and also gave each player £25 pounds (approximately shillings 115,000).
Anek says that initially, the federation had proposed to pay each player US $ 8,000 Dollars as allowances under the total budget request of shillings 3.3 billion for the World Cup.
At the recent International Netball Federation-INF congress, national federation presidents discussed the possibility of giving out monetary prizes to the winning team or teams of the World Cup as an incentive.
Uganda pays US $ 250 Dollars (approximately shillings 912,500) as annual affiliation fees to INF and also paid US $600 Dollars (approximately shillings 2.1 million) as participation fees for the World Cup.
However, starting next year, affiliation and World Cup participation fees have been revised to US $350 Dollars and US $1,000 Dollars respectively.
Anek says that the Federation is yet to receive a technical report on the performance of the She Cranes at the World Cup.
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