On Sunday July 9, only two referees were available for all the six scheduled national basketball league games at YMCA, Wandegeya.
And none of the two is eligible to officiate in the top tier division.
Raymond Muhumuza and Ram Nyakana are both affiliated to teams in the same division and are not supposed to take charge of games in the same league.
They have both been officiating in the women’s top flight where there is no conflict of interest for them.
Muhumuza is the head coach of Sharing Youth while Nyakana is the physio of defending champions City Oilers.
However, Muhumuza and Nyakana acted in a gesture of helping teams play their games and avoid piling up of fixtures.
The two officials are aware of the rules and had to seek the opinion of the different teams involved on whether they were fine with the idea.
The coaches of the various teams had no objection and decided to have the two referees take charge for the whole day.
Moses Olobo finished playing for Falcons and paired with Majid Muyinda to officiate the final game of the day and give the two refs a breather.
With referees not certain if their arrears will be cleared by the federation, many opt for the nearest opportunity to make money outside the league program.
Most of the refs decided to opt for Buganda Games that were being held at Budo rather than accumulating more money in arrears with the federation.
The federation also failed to man the gates and there was no gate collection on the day.
The first game of the day, between Lioness and Javon Ladies, was abandoned as no refs had arrived by 9.30am, the time meant for tip off.