The National Council of Sports has warned that the Uganda Boxing Federation (UBF) will collapse if it fails to meet all registration requirements under the National Sports Act 2023 by the June 7 deadline.
NCS set June 7, 2026, as the deadline for all national sports organisations to meet the registration requirements under the new sports law.
But many sports bodies are still lagging behind the process, with several excuses. But since the law was passed in September 2023, boxing has generated the loudest and lingering noise because, by default the amateur and professional arms have been governed by different bodies, which the new law seeks to eliminate.
This sparked a dispute between UBF-the default amateur body-and the Uganda Professional Boxing Commission (UPBC), the custodian of professional boxing since 1988. While the law gives a natural advantage to UBF to regulate all boxing activities, because it was already registered under the old 1964 NCS Act, UPBC, who were licensed by the Ministry of Trade, refused to simply surrender the fight ‘because professional boxing is our business.’
The ideal end is that both bodies merge and form a new single body but both have disagreed on the means because the UBF president considers UPBC as ‘a mere bunch of promoters who simply need to get licenses from UBF and resume operations.’
UPBC says, ‘we cannot be licensed by a body whose formation and regulations we did not contribute to.’
Stakeholder meetings have been held by the sports minister and NCS. But the back and forth has delayed the UBF registration process, with now just a week to the deadline.
‘If the boxing federation fails to meet the deadline, they will collapse and remain just a sports discipline, but not registered and recognised by NCS. And therefore, as government, we will refer to them as promoters of boxing,’ NCS general secretary Bernard Patrick Ogwel told the press on Monday.
‘Even by the time you apply, you will be a promoter. Now we shall look at the nitty-gritty of compliance areas that you will have addressed. And if we see that you have complied, you will be issued a certificate as a fully recognised national sports organisation. That’s where most of them are.’
Ogwel further warned: ‘And by the way, there’s going to be consequences for impostors. For federation members who fail, at that point your authority will expire, and therefore you will be relegated…And if you want to operate illegally, the law will take its course.’
NCS gave an exemption to bodies like the Uganda Paralympic Committee (UPC), following guidance from the attorney general, ‘that the Sports Act shall be amended to accommodate UPC in its unique institutional form.’ Interestingly, boxing was not considered among the unique cases.
Meanwhile, boxing is one of the bodies whose registration faced formal objections. The NCS thus reminded such bodies that their respective remedial compliance periods expire in July and August, ‘after which failure to fully comply shall result in automatic rejection of the application and revocation of certificates of recognition in accordance with the law.’
The registration priority under the new law was given to only those bodies initially recognised and registered by NCS.
But once a sports body loses its status, Ogwel warned that NCS will open up the floor for anyone willing to apply for registration to run that sport under a federation or association.