Uganda’s basketball team will travel to Rwanda on credit
The Uganda Silverbacks men's national basketball team arrived in Rwanda on Wednesday for the Africa Cup of Nations (Afrobasket) event.
The squad left for Kigali at 6:00 a.m., according to the president of the Federation of Uganda Basketball Association (FUBA), through Nairobi on Uganda Airlines and then Rwanda Air.
On August 25, 2021, Uganda will face former African champions Senegal in its first match of the season.
The Silverbacks were expected to undergo a two-week training camp in Egypt before flying to Kigali on Tuesday to begin pre-season preparations. Due to financial limits, none of this was achievable.
The restrictions date back to July, when the Silverbacks qualified for Afrobasket 2021 after defeating hosts Morocco 77-65 in Rabat.
The squad, who had traveled to Morocco on borrowed funds, had assumed that the National Council of Sports (NCS) would repay them when they returned, allowing them to pay off their debts.
When FUBA alerted NCS about the need for financial help for the finals and reimbursement of Morocco expenditures after their return, they were told there was no money.
“We also presented our projected budget for the Afrobasket finals in Kigali, which included a two-week training camp in Egypt,” says the statement. NCS advised us that there was no money available to support the team,” FUBA stated.
Following several petitions, the government, through NCS, ultimately came to the team’s rescue with Shs340 million on August 16, 2021.
Unfortunately, FUBA claims they utilized $96,000 of the money to pay off some of the $100,000 in accruing bills from the Morocco trip.
FUBA claims, however, that it has successfully gotten credit tickets for the entire team, allowing them to travel to Kigali ahead of the 7-day quarantine requirements for anyone going from Uganda, while it continues to look for methods to raise more money to pay off the debts.
“At the moment, we require Shs360 million to cover all of our expenses in Kigali as well as pay off the outstanding debt.”
The 30th edition of the AfroBasket, Africa’s men’s basketball continental championship, will take place in 2021. Rwanda is hosting the tournament.
It was originally slated for August 17 to August 29, 2021, however owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, it was pushed back a week to August 24 to September 5, 2021.
Senegal, Cameroon, and South Sudan are in Group D with Uganda.
