Tribunals to end wrangles in sport

By James Bakama

GOVERNMENT will soon start a sports tribunal to check the spiraling number of sports disagreements that end up in ordinary courts.

Education and Sports Minister Jessica Alupo revealed today at the Uganda Media Center that the necessary framework will put in place to settle sports disputes.

Several sports bodies are torn in wrangles where many of the warring factions have opted for courts of law.

Alupo cited football which leads with most court cases. “With such a tribunal, there would be faster and much more amicable way of settling disputes,” she noted.

Alupo, flanked by Sports State Minister Charles Bakkabulindi and Permanent Secretary Francis Lubanga, broke the news today at a press conference where she also released guidelines of a new super league set-up.

The guidelines aim at lifting the country from the 2012-13 chaos that had two super leagues being run concurrently. The new arrangement calls for one competition-the Uganda Super League.

It will be run by local soccer governing body FUFA. Uganda Super League, who run a parallel competition last season have been locked out of the league’s management by the ministry.

FUFA will work in conjunction with a five man committee of independent administrators.

But as Alupo issued the guidelines, she also conceded that they are yet to get to grips with the idea of FUFA being registered as a company.  The federation has been put on the ropes by critics who accuse it of personalizing a public entity.

Alupo promised to come up with a government position in a fortnight. That will also be the day the five man committee will also be named.

In Alupo’s four page statement, the Kavuma Kabenge led USL, which ran a parallel league to that organized by FUFA, is locked out of the running of Uganda’s top soccer competition.

Clones of some of the clubs in the FUFA Super League last season emerged in the USLL. The new guidelines however provide for mergers in the 2013-14 league.

“All double-faced football clubs are required to re-unify under one single composition of directorship in order to play in the new season. For avoidance of doubt, officials of clubs that played under USL may join the officials of the clubs that played under FSL and not the other way round,” read the guidelines in part.

Clubs to play in the new season will comprise of the post Jinja Declaration position with a  reviewed line-up, freed of clones, taking into account clubs promoted over the period up to when two parallel leagues emerged.

The clubs are Express, URA, SC Villa, Masaka FC, Simba, Police, Vipers, Bright Stars, CRO, KCC, Proline, Entebbe (renamed Entebbe Young), Kira Young, SC Victoria University BUL FC, and Soana.

Maroons, who emerged champions in the USLL league, are among the losers in the new arrangement where they have been relegated to the Big League together with Victors, Water FC and Aurum Roses that dropped from the FUFA Super League.

Government also wants FUFA to grant amnesty to sanctioned USLL officials upon their written undertaking not to take football matters top court again. Kabenge is serving an 11 year FUFA ban.

The ministry also wants an end to taking soccer matters to courts. It has therefore called for all pending and ongoing cases to be halted or withdrawn.

Alupo explained that the guidelines had been reached after consultations with all parties including world body FIFA and sponsors like Supersport and Uganda Breweries.

FUFA has accordingly been asked to tap into USLL’s expertise in football management by using some of the body’s nucleus staff in the new set-up.

But Kabenge, who has always asked government to review the regulatory framework to accommodate professional sports, described the guidelines as unfortunate.

“The minister was supposed to arbitrate. After her findings she should have reported back to us and not the press,” said Kabenge adding that the stakeholders involved here are not only professional but also private entities that the ministry has no control over.

“She is not mandated to destroy private initiatives. We will soon come up with what we think is the best response.”