TOWSON, Md. — The Uganda Women’s National Team is unable to attend the 2022 World Lacrosse Women’s Championship due to challenges in the visa procurement process, and will therefore forfeit its games. The championship is set to begin this evening at Towson University. 

World Lacrosse CEO Jim Scherr said: “We deeply regret that Uganda is unable to attend the women’s championship due to circumstances beyond our control. Since being informed of the team’s visa challenges, we have exhausted every possible avenue to get the Uganda women to the United States, but have unfortunately been unsuccessful. We’re devastated for the athletes and support staff who dedicated substantial time, effort and commitment to making their dream of competing among the world’s best a reality, and we hope to be able to welcome them at a World Lacrosse event in the near future.

“While Uganda is not able to participate in the event, the impact of the team’s preparations will endure and position women’s lacrosse in Uganda higher than it has ever been before.”

Colin McSharar, Uganda head coach, said: “We’re heartbroken to not be able to compete in the women’s championship after years of effort to make it to this stage. Both myself and my staff have done everything we could do the past 12 months to make sure that we gave the players the best opportunity to showcase their passion for lacrosse. We did it the right way; we just had a few things not go our way recently.

“While efforts continue to overcome our visa issues, we understand that the integrity of the competition for the remaining 29 teams must be maintained. We are overwhelmed by the support received from World Lacrosse, the IOC, the USOPC and several other members of the U.S. government who have worked tirelessly the last two weeks to help get us here. We have made incredible progress with the women’s team in Africa and look forward to continuing to rebuild the program to take the field in future championship-level events.”

If the visa status changes for the Ugandan women and they can travel to Maryland in the coming days, World Lacrosse will work to provide opportunities for them to compete informally.

The overall championship schedule will incur minor changes due to the game forfeitures. It can be found at WomensWorldLax2022.com.