Going by the recently released World Netball rankings, Uganda returned to the desired sixth position, which had previously been occupied by Wales.
As a result, Uganda’s senior netball team, the She Cranes, has automatically qualified for the 2027 Netball World Cup planned for Sydney, Australia. According to World Netball, countries that occupy the first to sixth positions have qualified for the tournament.
The top six countries are Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, England, South Africa and Uganda. This is going to be the fifth time for Uganda to feature in this top world event.
Despite hoisting the Uganda flag high in the world, Netball Uganda is still getting peanuts on the national sports budget. For example, in the 2023/2024 financial year, the total allocation for sports on the national cake was Shs 47.4bn; this was a significant figure for the sub-sector compared to Shs 3.4bn, which the sector received in 2016.
However, when the National Council of Sports (NCS) allocated the money to sports federations and associations, Netball Uganda was in category B, where it shared the Shs 6bn which was allocated to 17 federations.
The 17 included boxing, badminton, chess, swimming, handball, volleyball, woodball, squash rackets and golf, among others. If the 17 federations shared that money equally, each re- ceived below Shs 400m. Netball Uganda received Shs 300 million for the 2025–2026 fiscal year.
This was sharply below what other federations in category A received. Take an example: Fufa was allocated more than Shs 14bn, and Rugby Union, basketball, cricket, motor sports, and the Paralympics each got Shs 3bn.
I know, the above federations might also be crying foul for their cut from NCS, but what Netball Uganda and the Boxing Federation are getting is laughable.
SHE CRANES HEROICS
Recent She Cranes performances show there is an improvement that needs to be rewarded by NCS. At the 2019 Netball World Cup, the She Cranes finished sixth, but at the 2022 Commonwealth Games held in Birmingham, the She Cranes completed the event in fifth position.
The She Cranes were back in the 2023 Netball World Cup in Cape Town (South Africa), where they finished fifth; this was Uganda’s best position ever in the Netball World Cup.
Last week, the She Cranes won the Celtic Netball Cup in Scotland, where the Ugandans completed the tournament unbeaten after defeating hosts Scotland, Wales, Namibia, Zimbabwe and Northern Ireland.
The She Cranes currently are featuring in the Africa Netball Championship hosted by Malawi; this event has attracted women’s and men’s netball teams, and Uganda is expected to perform well. In conclusion, it is high time the NCS returned Netball Uganda to the first category where it belonged before that infamous wrangle between NCS and Netball Uganda in 2023.
SSIMBWA NON-RENEWAL HARDLY SURPRISING
Sam Ssimbwa learnt last week that Fufa was not ready to renew his contract as the national senior team assistant coach. This was bad news to the veteran local football tactician who had penned down a two-year contract with Fufa in 2023.
The former Uganda Cranes forward wanted Fufa to spare him at least until after the forthcoming Afcon tournament in Morocco. I was sceptical when the outspoken tactician accepted the Fufa job simply because he is known as a plain-speaking person who will never keep quiet when things are not going well.
As coach, he has had suspensions for various reasons for uttering things which annoyed the powers that be. Meanwhile, since his assignment to Uganda Cranes, Ssimbwa was visibly sidelined by his boss, Paul Put, and, on many occasions, he was unaware about press conferences, especially during important announcements.
In August this year, Ssimbwa was assured of handling the Uganda Cranes team, which was preparing for the 2024 Chan tournament, but just a few days into preparations, the job was given to Morley Byekwaso instead. Going by the above background, it was just a matter of time for Ssimbwa to be shown the exit.
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