UHA slap two-year ban on Nsubuga, Kisira
UHA's persona non grata. Dickson Kisira has been banned from any form of hockey activity for the next two years. PHOTOS/COURTESY
What you need to know:
Amateur clubs usually survive by crowd funding. If the club members decided to contribute to such a cause, the Shs500,000 breaks down further and eventually, no one sees the deterrent factor is contributing, says Shs10,000, to a fine.
Finally, Uganda Hockey Association (UHA) has shown some claws to curb violence in the sport.
John Nsubuga and Dickson Kisira, who beat up match officials Rooney Aheebwe and Joshua Masawi in the aftermath of the former pair’s club Weatherhead’s 2-1 loss to Wananchi on Saturday, have been “banned effective immediately from all hockey and hockey-related activities for a period of 24 months”.
In a press statement from the UHA executive committee, “Weatherhead (from which one of the perpetrators is regularly registered) has been issued a financial fine.” The said perpetrator is Nsubuga, who has over the years played for the club as a goalkeeper. Kisira, on the other hand, associates with the club but is mostly known to its players that hail from Naguru.
Daily Monitor can confirm that the fine to the club is Shs500,000 “meant to deter individuals from misbehaving while distancing themselves from their clubs of belonging.”
However, the affected parties are not happy with the fine. Aheebwe, and his club Badgers – which released a statement signed by chairman Julius Sseruyange on Monday condemning the violence – called UHA’s statement “a joke” while, on several hockey platforms, the wider community has defined the fine as a slap on the wrist.
Amateur clubs usually survive by crowd funding. If the club members decided to contribute to such a cause, the Shs500,000 breaks down further and eventually, no one sees the deterrent factor is contributing, says Shs10,000, to a fine.
The Sports Act 2023 pushes for such incidents to be punished with a fine of 480 currency points (which is equivalent to Shs9.6m) or imprisonment of up to 10 years. And if the case went to Court, the Court can in addition push for the compensation of loss and damage suffered by the affected party, and a ban not exceeding three years.
UHA's persona non grata. John Nsubuga has been banned from any form of hockey activity for the next two years.
Police involvement
UHA and the aforementioned officials had involved the Police, which was also on site during the match. We understand the case is still ongoing and some UHA executive members filed statements as witnesses so this might not be the last time we hear about this case.
Besides that, parties can appeal decisions of the UHA executive committee, and this one could be challenged further because both parties will certainly have wanted more time to present their case.
It is unclear if the Shs500,000 will be shared with Aheebwe and Masawi but Badgers' statement indicated that the former suffered facial injuries and are undergoing treatment. UHA confirmed it too through general secretary Stanley Tamale.
“Both attacked match officials were injued and as an excomm, we are committed to offsetting any medical costs they incur as they do their hockey work. Both Joshua and Rooney accessed Police Medical reports with our direct involvement,” Tamale said.
To enforce the ban, Tamale shared that “we (UHA) are working directly with NCS (National Council of Sports) who supervise the Complex. We have also begun negotiations with Jinja Road Police Station and we will communicate in due course through evident actions.”
Meanwhile, Weatherhead and their officials, who are always quick to accuse UHA on social media, have been quiet since the incident with just a few of their players blaming UHA’s leadership and poor officiating for their actions.
