NAKAWA – The Corporate League has on Monday 17 launched the 2020 edition.
It has become a strong brand in areas of organizing sports activities that are aimed at bringing people from various companies on a monthly basis.
This will be the 19th edition and it’s first outing is slated for Sunday 23 at the Kyambogo University Sports Grounds.
The highly fun packed league, which has Hotel Africana as the overall defending champions, will start off with football and fun games.
Like it has become the norm, it will once again run every last Sunday of the month up to November 29 with the grand dinner and awards slated for 4th December 2020.
The league will once again see corporate companies compete in different disciplines which include football, volleyball, basketball, swimming, woodball, athletics, netball, pool, fun games-tug of war and 3 legged race.
The new chairman of the executive committee Boaz Nabimanya indicates that companies taking part in this year’s edition have increased to 74 up from the 56 that participated last year.
Twenty new companies have joined corporate league this year. Some of the new entrants include SGA, Petroleum Authority, UBOS, Bella Wines, Kirudu Hospital, NGO Bureau, Rene industries, Mobikey Trucks, NITA- Uganda, KFC, MOVIT, Finca Uganda among others.
“We are excited about the commencement of the league, noted Nabimanya.
“An increase in the number of companies participating means we have to triple our efforts in as far as running the league smoothly is concerned.
“Expect an improvement in quality of outings, venues, branding and officiation.”
He explained that in order to run an effective league free of mercenaries, team managers are required to present albums of their players before kick-off for verification of players and issuance of licenses.
It was announced that the deadline for delivering the team albums to the corporate league secretariat is on Friday 21 February, short of which, teams will forfeit points.
Jennifer Namugga, the league manager says that to weed out cases of indiscipline and foster sportsmanship, punitive measures have been put in place.
For instance, if a player gets a yellow card, the team loses 2points. (In previous seasons, they were docked one point). If they get a red card, three points will be docked.
If a team accumulates over 3yellow cards or 2 red cards through the season, they are docked 15 points in the final tally as a punishment for indiscipline and roughness.
Dennis Ssebugwawo Mbidde, the board chairman corporate league says that one major change that will happen this season is the change in the point awards system.
“The awarding system will look more at corporate values like branding, transparency and responsiveness at the expense of just grinding out results on the pitch, stressed Namugga.
As such, sports will score 40%, corporate values 40% and 20 % will be at the discretion of judges.
She also reveals that there will also be an increase in the number of games for participants aged 35years and above reasoning that it is this lot that needs more playing time.
“If logistics allow, we shall have a separate league of 35+,” she added.
The league patron also Managing Director National Social Security Fund (NSSF), Richard Byarugaba, reveals that the corporate league should set benchmarks that should help it operate smoothly over the next decade and beyond.
He says that besides bringing communities together through sports, the league should be taken a notch higher to encompass team building, networking and keeping fit.
