The Uganda Ludo Federation president Hussein Kalule, while addressing journalists at the press conference held On Thursday, September 21st 2023 morning, at Urban Village in Bandana, revealed that they have failed to raise UGX- 163 million the national team needs to travel to South Africa for the 2023 Nations Cup.
The championship, where Uganda is the defending champion, is to be held in Pretoria ,South Africa from September 27th to 30th.
The Ludo Federation president Kalule Hussein confirmed that they have tried to engage National Council of Sports to give a hand but they have only paid a deaf ear and yet days are running out, and the team is set to travel next week on Tuesday, September 26th aboard Uganda Airlines.
According to flights bookings, Uganda is to present two teams , Uganda Doves (8 men) and the She Doves (8 women), and four officials all together the contingent of 20 people.
It should be noted that If Uganda fails to present a team in the championship they confirmed to take part, they will be fined at least $3000 that is approximately UGX-11.2M, and this also happened to this Federation before in 2022 at the Individual Ludo Championship and the government had to raise the same amount and failed.
“We wrote to the National Council of Sports, but we didn’t get any reply. We also wrote to the Minister several times, but he has not replied to us on several occasions ,it seems their is discrimination in the federations. I beg the Minister Of Education And Sports Mama Janet Museveni and the Speaker of Parliament to intervene in this matter since the State Minister for Sports Peter Ogwang has failed.” said Kalule.
“We have won all Ludo competitions that we have participated in, with the latest being the World Cup in November 2022, Uganda is ranked Number One in the whole world and we have always flown the Uganda flag high, but we are always neglected when it comes to the support from the NCS and government,” Kalule expressed his discontent.
“The team has been in camp at the Chez Johnson Hotel, and we have arrears that need to be paid we shifted our training camp to Nansana at Urban Village.”
“We managed to get our visas, and the team must be in South Africa latest Tuesday 26th September.
“if we don’t get any positive response, we are going to match to parliament and take our documents to the speaker of parliament on Monday.”
A disgruntled Kalule also said oftentimes his federation has been sidelined when it comes to support from the government, despite the glory archived by Ludo teams in the numerous tournaments they have represented the country.
Earlier this year, the government of Uganda paid for registration for the Uganda Doves to play at this tournament.
“There should be fairness, in this quarter alone the Uganda Ludo federation has so far received only UGX-1M (One million shilling) and definitely this shows that we have no future in terms of development, ” said Kalule.
The team has been training and more than ready to represent the country if given money.
“As a team, we are more than prepared to defend the title but without government hand, our motivation may diminish, therefore I call upon the government and other well wishers like corporate companies in this few remaining days to support us because it will look bad in case of any failure to go to defend the title in South Africa”. Team captain Matovu Huzaifah said.
The Team Squad comprise of (Male); Kalamaji Moses, Matovu Huzaifah, Mayanja Henry, Mubiru Emmanuel, Sserwada Musa, Ssembusi Mike, Ssenkumba Abdul and Kibalama Eric, while the female team has, Nagadya Betty, Nakibowa Joan, Nabuuma Teddy and Nabuye Rose.
This will not be the first time for a Ugandan sports national teams failing to honour international competition, as We already saw the Volleyball and Basketball teams pulling out of international competitions due to funding from government of Uganda through National council of sports but we have been seeing other national teams enjoying trips to World University games in China, games in Glasgow, Athletics in Budapest, first edition of All Africa Para games in Accra, Ghana and recently Africa rugby sevens Olympic qualifiers in Harare, Zimbabwe and each of its officials have been having allowance of about UGX-15M but now the Uganda Ludo National team (The Doves) who only need Ugshs 150M is on the Verge Of Failing to travel to South Africa to defend the African Nations Cup due to lack of funds.
