Sande Bashaija
1 October 2008
The U-18 girls' national team will not leave for Tunisia today as earlier planned after the Federation of Uganda basketball Associations (Fuba) failed to secure funds by the close of business on Monday.
The team of 18 is meant to take part in the Africa Junior Championship starting on Friday in Tunis. "We had booked with Egypt Air but there is no money to pay for the tickets," Fuba president Ambrose Tashobya lamented to Daily Monitor yesterday.
Tashobya revealed the sports minister Charles Bakkabulindi had promised to bail out the team but yesterday's public holiday put to halt office operations. "It's unfortunate we couldn't do anything today (yesterday) but if the minister works out something early on Wednesday we could still make the trip," he said.
Uganda emerged Zone 5 champions after outclassing a strong Kenyan side at Lugogo in August to book a place in the continental championship but failure to participate will have far-reaching repercussions for the country.
Not only will Fuba have to pay a fine of $3,000 (about Shs4.9m) but the country will be suspended from international competitions for at least two years. That implies that leading clubs Warriors, Falcons, KCC Leopards and A-1 Challenge could be locked out of the Africa Zone 5 Club Championships in Ethiopia.
Today at Lugogo
Ndejje v Planets 5pm
Nabisunsa v Bucks 6:30pm
Power v Crane High 8pm
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