The 2025 National Basketball League (NBL) playoffs are slated to tipoff on Friday, September 5 at the Lugogo Indoor stadium.
But before they start, Jeff Teya, the owner of the JT Jaguars basketball club, has thrown a spanner into the works. As it is, the Jaguars finished second in the regular season of the men’s top-flight division.
As second seeds, the Jaguars meet the team that finished seventh in the regular season in a best of three games quarter-final playoff. And that team is the City Oilers, incidentally. Despite being 10-time defending champions, the City Oilers had what was arguably their worst regular season display since their promotion to the NBL in 2013.
Inevitably, something had to give. The Oilers went ahead to sign two new foreign-based players, Chad Bowie and Kurt Curry, during the course of the second round of the regular season.
Although those two players did not play any regular season game, in the mind of the Oilers’ management, it is said, they were considered significant additions. Apparently, they would improve the Oilers, and give them a chance to win an eleventh successive championship.
However, the Jaguars management has queried the eligibility of those two players, which if successful, could make it impossible for the Oilers to field them in the post-season. Teya said: “According to the competition rules, article 3.05 (H), it stipulates that when a new player is added to a team’s roaster, after they have been granted a letter of clearance (LOC), they must append their signature physically within 14 days, to complete their registration. But unless Fuba, the sports-governing body can prove to us that those players came into the country and signed on their documents within the stipulated time, then they are ineligible to play in the playoffs.”
That said, Nasser Sserunjogi, the Fuba president, brushed off Teya’s argument, sighting a wrong interpretation of the regulation. Sserunjogi said that for a player to append their signature, they do not necessarily have to be in the country as Teya argued.
“That is not what the article that Teya is quoting reads. It only calls for the player’s signature. Period. In case the player is outside the country, the document on which they have to sign can be sent to them, and they append their signature from wherever they are, and send it back here,” Sserunjogi said.
Meanwhile, Daniel Obol, the chief executive officer (CEO) of the Namuwongo Blazers, laughed at Sserunjogi’s interpretation of the rules. Obol said the catch in the contested regulation is the word “physical”.
“Where in the world does the word physical mean virtual or online? Sserunjogi must take us for jokers here. The rule is clear that a player must sign on the hard copy of a club’s bio-data form. A document sent online is a soft copy, not a hard copy,” Obol said.
In addition, Freedom Owora, the boss of JKL Lady Dolphins, that the rest of the league will not be taken for a ride by Sserunjogi and Fuba. He continued that for all the time they have been in the NBL, Fuba has ordered them to take any new player signings to their offices as a rule, to sign on the bio-data form.
Yet, when it comes to the Oilers, the rules seem to be twisted in their favour. Owora explained: “Earlier in the season, I wanted to sign a couple of Malian players. I asked Fuba to allow us send the players the forms online so that they would sign them electronically. Barbara Okot, who works for the competitions committee, categorically told me that was not possible. She explained that the players had to go to the Fuba offices and sign physically because they wanted to guard against someone else signing for a player.”
Furthermore, Owora revealed that his player, Brenda Ekon, who works in Mbale could not be eligible to play until she travelled down to the Fuba offices and signed on the bio-data form. That is what made her eligible to be part of the playoffs squad.
Otherwise, all the requests for the forms to be taken to her were rebuffed by Fuba, when, in their response emails, they told Owora, Ekon had to be present in their offices to sign. Against that, Teya and Obol feel that there are double standards by Fuba.
They argued that even last year, the Oilers brought in a player from the USA, Petty Parrish, in similar circumstances, they regarded illegal. Parish only featured in the playoffs and helped the Oilers to a tenth title.
But this time, the rest of the league will apparently not allow that to happen. They would rather boycott the playoffs if Fuba do not apply the rules fairly across the board!
