She Cranes’ World Cup performance reignites money disparity debate 

It is official. Uganda’s national women’s netball team, the She Cranes, were Africa’s best-performing side at the 2023 World Cup.

The girls achieved that position after stunning hosts South Africa 49-47 the other week in a close classification game in Cape Town. The victory, which was perfect revenge for the She Cranes who had lost to the same opponents three days earlier by a two-goal margin, enabled the girls to secure the country’s highest-ever finish at the World Cup.

That fifth position betters the seventh place the She Cranes managed in 2019. In the last one and a half weeks, the girls have received congratulatory messages from social media from politicians across the divide, members of parliament, celebrities, sports enthusiasts and the media.

The She Cranes are today undoubtedly the pride of the nation and their star continues to soar. But it wasn’t only the netballers who excelled for Uganda; the Gazelles were similarly impressive across the southwestern border on their way to finishing seventh at the Fiba Afrobasket tournament that concluded in Kigali on the same weekend.

Among Uganda’s victims at the BK Arena were Senegal, who would eventually finish second, DRC and Guinea. The countries that beat the Gazelles were Mali (3rd), Rwanda (4th) and Mozambique (fifth). But for injury to Jane Asinde in the quarter-final clash against Rwanda, Uganda could and most probably would have advanced.

She exited the game with the Gazelles leading 28-17 and in cruise control. Jane Asinde, up until then, was Uganda’s second-best player behind Jannon Otto, and her forced departure denied the Gazelles a player who was orchestrating the team’s first breaks and the press. Rwanda fully capitalized on the misfortune of the Gazelles to reach the last four after a 66-61 win.

RAGING QUESTION

Meanwhile, the boxers in Cameroon were equally formidable in their representation of Uganda at the Africa Boxing Championships on the same weekend. Two boxers Wasswa Ssali and Erina Namutebi bagged silver and earned themselves $10,000 each (Shs 36m).

The five who settled for bronze, Ronald Okello, Ukasha Matovu, Solomon Geko, Grace Nankyinga and Emilly Nakalema, pocked $5,000 each (Shs 18m) while the six quarterfinalists walked away with $1,250 each (Shs 1.45m).

The raging question, since, has been why the federations of netball, basketball and boxing are not enjoying equitable support in the budgetary appropriation of money for sports.

There is a section of federations that is insistent that a lot of money is being channeled towards the country’s number one sport football, yet the results there are not forthcoming.

Fufa annually is supposed to receive Shs 17bn from the expanded sports budget of Shs 47bn. In this quarterly release, only 42 per cent of money was handed to respective federations for their activities which meant that Shs 102m went towards Fuba’s calendar activities.

The amount is evidently not sufficient to fund four international activities that include the Fiba AfroBasket Women’s Championship in Kigali, the 3×3 in Kigali, the U-16 AfroBasket tournament in Tunisia and pre-Olympic qualifiers for the Silverbacks.

Put simply, the federations of boxing, netball and basketball have to make do with a lot less money in comparison with Fufa to run their calendar activities.

Fufa president Moses Magogo’s argument has perennially been that all sports associations and federations must collectively work together to push for a bigger share of the national budget.

However, other federations argue that while Fufa’s calendar activities still dictate that they will always command the lion’s share, Shs 17bn is too much for a body that gets funding from sponsorships and its mother body Fifa.

The one area where the likes of netball and basketball have scored in recent terms is on the field of play where their national teams have done well in recent tournaments.

And for as long as football continues to flounder, as has been the case lately, while other small disciplines score highly, the funding disparity debate will only intensify.