Betting in the Uganda Premier League should worry all of us

Forget about the mob that attempted to break into Mengo. Or the simmering feud between Fufa and National Council of Sports that will remain protracted for the foreseeable future.

The most frightening development in the Ugandan game is the advent of betting in the Uganda Premier League. The vice has been growing like a bushfire in the country – a new betting firm is opened every week that passes, but it hadn’t yet infiltrated the heart and soul of the Ugandan league.

In the corridors of one of the prominent Uganda Premier League clubs is an on-going investigation concerning high players who were implicated in a ring to throw away games.

That betting on the Uganda Premier League will continue unabated is one of those truths we must accept to learn to live with. For as long as it is legal in the country, the football authorities have no jurisdiction over the vice.

So the Uganda Premier League bosses and local soccer governing body Fufa are virtually powerless in trying to stop it.

The same way betting companies have odds on the Premier League and Bundesliga is the same way they can generate odds on matches in the Azam Uganda Premier League. The significant difference is that most leagues in Europe are professional with efficient controls and policies that regulate the betting industry.

Read: There’s something good happening in the league

In Uganda we have an amateurish setting with no controls to regulate betting in the Uganda Premier League.

There have been unverified reports on a couple of games that raised eyebrows in last year’s UPL season. It would be ideal for the UPL not to sweep the matter under the carpet, but confront it head-on. Money is changing hands at the expense of the morality of football and we mustn’t wait for 2017 to solve the challenge.

Betting on the Uganda Premier League is bad enough. But not as bad as players being implicated in a syndicate that runs through three continents. Apparently there are individuals who are contacting certain players to make them influence results through underperforming.

Your columnist is digging deep to authenticate the allegations, which explains why some of my avowals may appear inconclusive. Being a matter of sensitivity, it is only fair that the responsible parties get to the bottom of it.

What is beyond doubt is that there have been some curious patterns in the performances of some individuals and a team or two in the league. The easy way out of this is to label that pattern of results as a team out of shape but there is more to it.

Our game is trying to go places and would do with a cleansing from this issue. What this would require is for all stakeholders to do a think-tank on betting in the Uganda Premier League and how best to keep our game’s integrity pure.

Club owners, technical teams, players and betting companies owe the game the moral responsibility of upholding the ethos of competition.

This is not a matter to be addressed tomorrow. We must tackle it today and now in earnest.

Ruggers have nothing to lose
Yesterday the Ugandan 7s team made its bow at the HSBC World Sevens Series in Dubai.

As I penned this column yesterday, Uganda had just lost 46-0 to South Africa and 29-7 to USA. It was due to take on Scotland.

No one demanded the trophy from the team when they boarded the plane to the United Arab Emirates and their participation in Dubai can only stand rugby in good stead.

There is no shame in the 46-0 reverse to South Africa. The shame would be in picking no lessons from the HSBC World Sevens Series.

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@mnamanya