Afrobasket 2021
Uganda’s fixtures (Group D)
26 Aug v Senegal
27 Aug v Cameroon
29Aug v South Sudan
Five players and two coaches have just commenced a seven-day quarantine. Seven more players and two coaches are on their way from the US, Canada and Denmark.
Back in Uganda, FUBA president Nasser Sserunjogi is still imploring the government to solve the Silverbacks’ financial difficulties once and for all.
Safe to say, the Silverbacks are not spending the last week before Afrobasket 2021 in ideal preparations.
But at least they are in Kigali, which at times looked uncertain last week, when the Silverbacks monetary problems were centre stage.
Now they are not, thanks in part to the sh340m given to the Silverbacks by the government. Still, as Sserunjogi explained to the media yesterday, that money met only a third of the need.
In fact, it was allocated, not to the upcoming 2021 Afrobasket in Kigali, but on the settlement of a debt, incurred to facilitate the team’s second-leg qualifier away to Morocco last month.
So how is the team being financed now?
‘We got tickets on credit for the entire team to make sure that the team at least travels to Kigali to beat the 7 days quarantine regulation for people travelling from Uganda, as we sort out others issues of the money,’ explained Sserunjogi.
‘As we stand now we need we need sh360m to cater for all our expenses and also pay the remaining balance of the borrowed money’
By now, all the focus should be on an exciting Silverbacks squad with the potential to go further than its 2015 and 2017 predecessors. But it’s not, for $100,000 reasons.
