Uganda Secondary Schools Sports Association (USSSA) have intensified the hunt for sponsors for all its products ahead of the season kick off.

Currently, only Fresh Dairy Games (Formerly Ball Games I) have a sponsor as others a sponsored by government, USSSA and schools.

Sadly, the Fresh Dairy sponsorship deal shall expire at the end of this year and it’s yet to be clear if they are willing to extend the marriage with a better deal according to USSSA demands.

During a press conference held on Thursday 1^st January 2024 at GNS Hotel in Kampala, USSSA president Justus Mugisha call upon corporate companies to join the cause with financial sponsorships to the games.

“As USSSA our mandate is to ensure that students have the rights to play. However, the whole process calls for costs.

We call upon all corporate companies with good offers to support the cause as we jointly make our country better.

We are open to welcome partners with genuine sponsorship packages”. Mugisha.

The only sponsored docket Fresh Dairy Games cover nine sports disciplines of Girls Football, Basketball 5X5 and 3X3, rugby 15s, badminton, handball, tennis and table tennis.

A serious product available for market is boys football which for over two decades donned the Copa Coca-Cola name because of the sponsors, has gone five years since Coca-Cola ceased the sponsorship.

Another package without sponsorship is the famous ball Games II which carry Netball, Rugby 7s, Athletics, Volleyball, Lacross, Dance sport, woodball, among others Sport.

Also the USSSA National swimming gala is unsponsored.

 

During the same press conference, USSSA president Justus Mugisha announced new developments in the competitions to be followed this year.

The association intends to limit the number of foreign players on a team playing on a court at the same time to create more chances for local players.

When asked if the new rule won’t violate the relationship of the East African Community which allows free movement within the region, Mugisha said, “We are not abolishing foreign students  from playing our games but we are limiting them to a certain number that should be on the court.

We are mindful of the East African Community relationship and consultations are on for a better rule”.

Mugisha also outlined the new competition format to be officially adopted this year.

In this format, all schools at the national level will play equal number of games to give more playing time to students whose schools can’t go farther in the competition.

“In the new competition format, we shall first play in groups then after groups, each eliminated team will play classification games.

All team will play the same number of game. In this, all positions from 1-64 will be competed for.

This will give more playing time to players in teams that drop out of the competition before knockout”.

In the other announcements, the boys football championship which has initially been running for full two weeks is reduced to nine days.

The press conference also addressed the criteria to be followed in movement of players from one school to another.

This time, the hijacking of players by giant schools from other seems to be crippled and hard.

For any player to move from one school to another, it must be done through the USSSA online portal and the former school must provide a release letter to the mover.

However, the rule applies to only Bursary students.  Non Bursary students are free to move at any time.

USSSA calendar and normal registration opened on the 1^st January and will run to 29^th February.

Special registration window for special cases will start on 1^st to 15^th March.

The season opened with the USSSA Elite Games held from 24^th to 27^th January in Jinja.

The deadline for district qualifiers are 24^th March, zonal qualifiers must also be done by 14^th April.

National championships will run from 26^th April to 5^th May.