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The Uganda men’s basketball team, Silverbacks will play no part in the Fiba World Cup Qualifiers that start Friday in Benguela, Angola.
Fuba President Nasser Sserunjogi confirmed this in a press statement released yesterday after confirmation that Uganda, through the National Council of Sports (NCS), does not have the required funds for the team to make the trip.
“Fuba was informed by the government of Uganda, through National Council of Sports (NCS) that there was no money for this particular campaign,” part of the statement from Sserunjogi revealed.
“Having put up a splendid performance at Afrobasket in Kigali, Rwanda recently and making the quarterfinals, finishing no.6 overall, this team had a genuine chance to be among the top five countries in Africa and make the World Cup for the first time in the history of Ugandan basketball,”
The team needed 380m to make the trip. Uganda was scheduled to face Mali, Cape Verde, and Nigeria in Group A of the qualifiers.
The team of locally-based players has been training at Africa Bible University in Lubowa for the last two weeks in anticipation that NCS would eventually find funds for the tournament.
The five foreign-based players, who were supposed to join the team, were on standby and waiting for travel tickets to join the team.
Fuba will now wait to hear from the international body Fiba, to learn of the fine to pay for confirming participation in the qualifiers and pulling out at the eleventh hour.
“Definitely we expect to be fined. Not sure how much, though,” Sserunjogi told Daily Monitor.
