Africa-Press – Uganda. Uganda is edging closer to having a law that meets the needs of one of today’s biggest sectors – sports.
Parliament has passed the new Sports Law and will now be sent to the president for ascent.
Once that is done, the new law will repeal and replace the 1964 National Council of Sports Act.
Most of the recommendations that brought closure were made by the Committee on Education and Sports, which was tasked with harmonizing the National Sports Bill 2021 – tabled by Hon. Moses Magogo on November 10, 2022 – and the Physical Activity and Sports Bill 2022 – tabled by the State Minister of Education and Sports on December 6 last year.
Among the key pillars of the new law is registration of federations, match-fixing, management of infrastructure, doping, commercialisation and violence among others.
Today, Mr Magogo, also Fufa president, is in his right to chest-thump and demand flowers for pushing this through after the government had dragged its feet for years.
However, as a sports administrator himself, he will know that the needs of the subsector are far from solved.
Infrastructure, funding, proper administration and a society that doesn’t appreciate sports enough yet remain major hindrances.
Until Uganda constructs proper facilities for competitions, sports will never thrive beyond the few successes largely hinged on natural ability.
What are missing by not giving sports what it requires or deserves to act as an escape route for the large numbers of unemployed youths.
The global sports market grew from $354.96b in 2021 to $501.43b in 2022 at a compound annual growth rate of 41.3 percent.
The growth is mainly due to the companies rearranging their operations and recovering from the Covid-19 impact, which had earlier led to restrictive containment measures.
The market is expected to reach $707.84 billion in 2026 at a CAGR of 9 percent. Where is Uganda in all this?
The sports market consists of sales of sports services and related goods by entities (organisations, sole traders and partnerships) that provide live sporting events before a paying audience or entities.
Africa is the fastest-growing region in the forecast period.
The outbreak of Covid-19 has acted as a massive restraint on the sports market in 2020 as governments globally imposed lockdowns and restricted domestic and international travel limiting the need for services offered by these establishments.
Before the pandemic, this country was hardly eating any portion of the global sports cake and still isn’t. Something has to change now that the law is better.
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