NCS responds to federations over the cost of COVID-19 tests

President's guidelines
Outdoor sports to open
Sports without fans
Players tested 72 hours before matches
Players to be tested every 14 days
For tournaments, players have to be quarantined
Gyms remain closed

NCS' implementation plan
Submission of planned activities by October 2
Verification and approval of activities by October 9
Monitoring for Compliance by Federations by October 19

When President Yoweri Museveni announced plans to re-open sports after months in lock-down, there was a sense of relief among different stakeholders.

However, after the dust had settled, many associations and federations realised that the directives put in place were quite complex.

Many associations/federations sought the National Council of Sport's (NCS) intervention.

And in a meeting between NCS and the federations/associations held last Friday in Kampala, NCS assured the sports fraternity that it had started engaging various organs of the Government such as the ministry of health, Uganda Virus Institute, and the National COVID-19 Taskforce on how to ease the directives —most especially reducing the costs of testing.

"We are in talks with the relevant authorities so that we find a solution. The cost of testing is high towards the federations. We want to make sure the costs are reduced or be taken up by the government. But we also don't want to have scenarios of the virus spreading among the athletes or officials when sports resume," NCS chairman Donald stated Rukare stated.

Rukare, however, used the same meeting to re-emphasize the need to follow the government's guidelines, and also shared guidelines that NCS would roll out before associations can resume operating.

Each sports activity to be organized shall be cleared on its merit while federations shall appoint medical personnel to work in liaison with the ministry of health on all Covid19 related matters while a focal point person will be designated by federations to act as the liaison between them and NCS.

Apart from NCS, federations will also seek clearances from other government organs to organize activities while sports bodies will have to inform NCS the venue to be used for particular events plus several athletes and officials including media before the event.

Players and officials will present proof that they have tested before the activities.

Out of the sports discipline under NCS its only badminton, bodybuilding, squash, and VX have had their opening for competitions deferred while darts, table tennis, chess have been cleared to resume since they can be played both indoor and outdoor.

Uganda boxing federation (UBF) president Moses Muhangi who was one of the heads of the federation that attended the meeting, believes the environment in which sports will be played does not favor its return.

"If you say that we have to play in the open space or indoor but do we have these facilities. If you are talking of getting clearances from different organs of the Government apart from the NCS many of the federations may not be able to do that. If you are to test players 72 hours before the competition or after two weeks, few have that capacity. This environment may be hard for different federations to follow. FUFA who have a big budget can perhaps be able to do this", noted Muhangi.