The Federation of Uganda Basketball Associations (FUBA) through the President Nasser Sserunjogi has communicated three options they are considering for the National Basketball League play format amidst the COVID-19 challenges that have seen the league been delayed for more than two months now.

Following the Presidential address and update on the situation of the COVID-19 country wide lock down on Tuesday, 4th; FUBA has come up with options on how it will see its league(s) through this season. In his address, President Museveni extended the lock down hence the suspension on sports activities for more 14 days starting on May. 7th implying that some of the federation activities and mainly the NBL cant tip-off.

These new directives are what prompted the FUBA president to officially write to all the basketball stakeholders about the options the federation has come up with to ensure that the federation activities are run amidst the corona virus challenge.

In his letter dated May. 5th; Sserunjogi confirmed that some calendar activities will be suspended as they will be overtaken by events; and about the national league(s), the FUBA president communicated as follows;

“For the National Basketball League – NBL (Men and Women), we have a number
options as follows;

(a) To play a one leg/round league where the top 4 teams in each division qualify
for the semi-finals,

(b) A Tournament based competition where we have teams grouped in different
divisions, and then the top four teams qualify for the semi-finals,

(c) If time doesn’t allow us to have the above two options by end of October 2020,
then we shall be left with no option but to cancel the league. However, we shall
either have a knockout tournament, which includes all teams from the different
divisions, or short 3×3 tournaments to engage our players and fans with some
basketball activity for the year 2020.

The lower divisions (Division I and Division II) will also follow the same format as the National Basketball League depending on the guidelines that will be issued by the government after the fourteen days.”

The basketball league(s) had been scheduled to start on the weekend of March 20-22 but following the announcement of a country wide lock down due to the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak and thus a suspension of all sporting activities by the government for a month, the federation put on hold the start of the season which is still the case up to now.

However, the FUBA president confirmed that the following events still stand as scheduled. These include the Zone V Club Championship slated for October; the Basketball Africa League (BAL) qualifiers also slated for October; the 3x3 Africa Cup slated for November and the Afro Basket qualifiers (Men) that is slated for November.