Fufa stuck in a web of their own making
Fufa president Magogo must find a truce with Walusimbi. Photo BY JB SSENKUBUGE
What you need to know:
- CATCH 22. When Walusimbi registered the legal Fufa, Magogo and his board paid a deaf ear and yet they have to deal with him now
When Fufa Limited was created as a ‘business arm of Fufa’ in 2009, many resisted and said the in-built inconsistencies of having a national association operate as a private company would muddle interests and hurt football, rather than unlock its commercial potential, as was the claim of those whose idea it was.
Notable amongst those who protested the registration of Fufa Limited was Dan Walusimbi, who went a step further to register the ‘real Fufa’ after claiming with no uncertainty that Fufa Limited could no longer be termed as a national association as per the National Council of Sports (NCS) statutory instruments.
However, the legal argument which attracted the Solicitor General’s advise and a Constitutional Court ruling way back in 2013, was largely ignored by the current administration, until such a time that it took the involvement of Fifa to find an ‘answer’ that everyone knew about.
Now football administration finds itself with egg on face and in a situation where it must become something it really cannot until it resolves matters with someone it really sees as an imposter!
Let me just say I would not like to be Moses Magogo right now. Still it is in such times that leadership credentials must be tested and proved, especially after a sustained period of abysmal failure.
I call it failure because the current administration has known that this is a matter that would continue to dog it relentlessly, if left unresolved.
Yet it did not act and that leaves me with no better description for their actions (or lack of) than that of criminal negligence of duty.
It easy to say that this was a problem of Lawrence Mulindwa’s regime and that would be true.
But what is also true is that the crippling potential of this illegality must be addressed now, and the directive by NCS that they de-register Fufa Limited and incorporate Fufa under trusteeship by August 10, 2016 is an opportunity they should not miss.
By now it must be clear that Walusimbi is not bothered about that deadline and he wants to be compensated for his ‘foresightedness’. I would suggest that this is done decisively and without further drama.
That is the kind of action that Fufa owes the Uganda football fraternity.
Uganda football cannot continue to be the pawn in the administrations’ inability to see through the original conflict. It matters not either that when this particular fight subsides we shall somehow find a way to return to where we started. We always do. But let us deal with the now, and right away.
Needless to say, there remains much more important matters in local football for it to be derailed by what is really a self-inflicted political problem. Fufa was set up to supervise the development of the game. Logically, Fufa is a technical and not a political body. It follows that its time is better spent on say the Shs3b needed for the Comoros game, as opposed to when to end a useless squabble.
