No shortcuts for SC Villa

Over the past 14 years, Sports Club Villa has been riven by disagreements. The club that once offered a study in sustained success has not added to its unprecedented tally of 16 league titles since 2004.

Its odds of snapping the drought still look long, but maybe — just maybe — the cloak-and-dagger intrigues that have swirled around the club can finally be spoken of in the past tense.

After a stop-start electioneering period where the tone of candidates was deliberate, sombre and terrifying in its certainty, the club’s past leaders — whom fans still remember with a sentimental fondness — decided that they had seen enough. This past week the likes of Franco ‘Capo’ Mugabe and Hajji Omar Mandela stepped forth to name an interim committee that will shepherd the Jogoos through a normalisation process.

The process is expected to straddle not more than six months as Uganda’s most successful club attempts to stop lurching from scandal to scandal.

Many Villa fans and observers alike have been quick to conclude that recent developments will ensure that the record Ugandan champions do not continue in what has largely looked like a remorseless collapse. It is refreshing to know that most of those fans and all observers agree that the club will not develop a ruthless instinct for success overnight.

The process of realigning Villa to time-honoured best practices will take a protracted period. Villa has found itself in a state of seemingly unstoppable decline because it failed to put in place structures that would have kept it on the rails. It therefore strikes one as very telling that some Villa fans are calling on — even begging — the likes of Capo and Mandela to participate in the day-to-day running of the club as if this will wish away the plethora of problems.

There will be no shortcuts if Villa intends to clean its house and interim committee boss William Nkemba is not oblivious to this.

The loose threads that unravelled Villa revolve around the lack of a concrete strategy. If this strategy is not deeply woven into the club’s fabric, the whirlwind will continue to be reaped. There are no two ways about it: structures and a strategy will give Villa the direction is so badly craves.

Women football continues getting short end of stick

Avery masculine culture surrounds Uganda football. The recently-concluded 2018 Cecafa Women Challenge Cup offered a chance to strike a blow against gender stereotypes that abound.

Sadly, Uganda football governing body Fufa instead opted to swing a wrecking ball by sending the Crested Cranes to Rwanda by road.

When the measurable strides the Crested Cranes had made in the Rwandan capital came to a screeching halt, following a two-all draw with the hosts, head coach Faridah Bulega betrayed no outward bitterness.

She nevertheless opined that her team had lost its edge thanks in no small measure to the round-robin tournament’s punishing schedule.

Long bus trip
It was not immediately obvious to her that a long bus trip from Kampala to Kigali must have done lasting damage to her players.

If it was, she clearly never saw the purpose in voicing her frustration.
Bulega masked any failings by her employer under a veneer of perfection and instead took a swipe at the tournament organisers.

This was hardly helpful. Uganda women football has drowned in a flood of problems since time immemorial.

Under the reigns of Denis Obua and Lawrence Mulindwa, representation of women interests were startlingly awful in every conceivable way.
Women football’s appeal steadily waned after a grant earmarked for development was soundly abused.

While it has not been thrown into turmoil — certainly at the scale of years gone by — women football continues being a second cousin under Moses Magogo. If the worth of Magogo is to be measured by his ability to right this enduring wrong, then his report card makes for grim reading.

One Crested Cranes player spoke of feeling so unvalued when Fufa gave her Shs 50,000 after figuring in all matches when Uganda hosted the Cecafa Women Challenge Cup a few years back. She thought Fufa officials had taken leave of their collective senses. The manner in which they have treated the team’s recent trips to Nairobi and Kigali suggest that they will continue to do so.

This of course is as alarmingly wrong as it is deeply conflicted — just not to Fufa officials. For them, treating women national team players markedly different from their male opposite numbers is familiar and canonical. This needs to be brought to heel!

What we now know....

We know that Uganda went into last weekend’s Rugby World Cup Sevens in San Francisco, USA ranked 20th out of 24 participating nations.

After winning and losing two matches apiece, the Uganda Sevens left the tournament a place better off in 19th position.

We know that Uganda lost their Championship Cup qualifier quite comprehensively at the hands of Samoa. They were in the frame to boss the Bowl event before suffering a marginal loss at the hands of Chile.

Coach Tolbert Onyango’s (pictured on the right) charges then wrapped up things with an entertaining 38-28 win over Uruguay.

Returned home
On a lighter note, it was heartening when all 12 players that went to San Francisco with the Uganda Sevens returned on home soil last week.
Uganda rugby has previously gained some notoriety for having players that go AWOL while on national duty.

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@robertmadoi