Basketball in Africa

Charles Mutebi
Kampala

THE basketball federation (FUBA) has laboured to lift the standards of the local game.

But how it nourishes its skinny reputation among its most important constituency - the league players -remains a serious challenge.
From regular queries about the standard of refereeing to the handling of the occupation disputes that come with running a league, many players see FUBA's operations as the small end of a raw deal.

Now whether their assessment is right is not the issue. The issue is those players think FUBA is wrong in many of the ways they manage the league.
Chairman technical committee William Musaali acknowledges the existence of displeasure among some players but insists the majority of accusations are not based on the facts.
"All is not well," he admitted. "It's true some people are not happy with certain things but the truth is most of the times it's not the federation's fault. For instance, teams complain about the refereeing only when they've lost."

Musaali explained that at such times, what running a good league means to the player's on the losing team was completely forged by their grievance.
There are genuine questions about the normal standards of officiating but Musaali says that is being gradually rectified.
"We know that we must improve the quality of referees and that's why we have graded them and organised refresher courses for them," Musaali explained, although only a romantic can expect the abolishment of the hazards that dog the institution of refereeing world wide. But FUBA can do with abolishing the underlying perception that some teams are more equal than others.

This season, Sadolin Power and A1 Challenge have complained about two decisions made in favour of UCU's men's and ladies teams respectively.

Power were unhappy about an appeal victory for the Canons. It recanted the final match of a four-match ban for Geoffrey Omondi but the same was not done for two of their players who were under similar punishment.

While A1 saw their 51-50 victory over the Lady Canons overturned in the loser's favour because they had lodged a pre-match protest about the late arrival of their players.

Those two decisions prompted suggestions that the Canons have greater sway in FUBA's boardrooms than most. Thanks in great part to the assumed lobbying power of Canons coach Jason Mehl's.
But Musaali, as well as executive assistant federation secretary and committee member Joseph Manano were united in their response. Both said that Mehl understood how to exploit all possible avenues available within the games' constitution to personal advantage.
"The UCU manager knows the rules and knows how to approach (FUBA) when things haven't gone his teams' way," Manano explained.
Musaali added in emphasis that the Lady Canons were well within their rights to protest A1's late arrival. The fact their action was not in the spirit of an amateur league like Uganda's, where the prime reward is the pleasure of competing, was academic.
Musaali cited the decision to relegate the Charging Rhinos last season as an indication that FUBA has no favourite clubs and are merely trying to impose the rules. The decision could have gone either way due to the confusion which surrounded the rules, "You see, many people said the Rhinos wouldn't be relegated because they had the most number of officials (four) of any club on the federation's committees but look what happened."
Clearly, FUBA see the tension resulting from the clubs and their players limited grasp of the rules and regulations but also acknowledge that such is to be expected in an amateur league.

Some players see things differently but for now the co-existence is not really threatened. After all, as both parties might attest, everyone's involvement in the sport is ideally shaped on its global motto which states, "I love this game".

MTN-FUBA league

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Rangers 60 Lakers 50
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