Agaba eyeing Villa top seat

KAMPALA- There was general excitement in the lead up to the election of Ben Misagga as president of record 16-time league champions SC Villa four years ago.

With a power vacuum following the initial split of the club in in 2014, Misagga initially contested for the top seat with Dennis Mbidde before the latter’s withdrawal from the race.
A similar situation is building again at Villa Park with just under a year to the club’s next elective assembly.

Daily Monitor has learnt that Lotteries and Gaming Regulatory Board CEO Edgar Agaba is eyeing the top seat come August 2018.

Agaba, the chairman of Hoima Villa fans club, in July wrote to the club highlighting issues that he felt needed to be addressed for the betterment of the club.
They included harmonising of several factions of the club, the need to run the club as a company limited with shares and not by guarantee and empowering of systems, transparency and accountability.
Agaba’s ideas were reportedly not given audience by Misagga. The latter, however, welcomes Agaba’s interest in Villa presidency.

“I have no problem with him standing and we still have time to the next general assembly. He is not someone new because we previously invited him to work with us,” Misagga stated when contacted for a comment yesterday.
Misagga (pictured) did not reveal whether he would stand again for the post having also acted as a fans’ coordinator more than a decade ago.
“We shall not just hand over to anyone because we have spent substantial amounts on the club,” he added.

Agaba, a lawyer by profession, possesses a substantial record in management having spent six years as the new executive director of the Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets Authority (PPDA) until 2011.
He was also interviewed for the NSSF managing director role before Richard Byarugaba was appointed to the post.

When we reached him, Agaba observed that the issue was not ‘his interest in the top Villa seat but a change in how the club is being run.’
“Villa must be restructured with fans becoming shareholders of the club. In the current Villa, nobody knows who owns what. All of us must be shareholders of a professionally run club,” he noted.
Agaba has been taking keen interest in the domestic game recently and was also seen at Saturday’s game in which Villa lost 1-0 to Vipers at the St. Mary’s Stadium in Kitende. The game was however marred by fan hooliganism with Villa fans breaking down the barricade that separated the VIP section from the ordinary stands.

Villa, Uganda’s most successful club, have endured lean years in recent times and have not won the league trophy in 13 years. In May, Villa great Paul Mukatabala told Daily Monitor that the club’s 16-trophy record in the league was under threat from the more organised KCCA – the reigning back-to-back champions.
Misagga’s tenure has seen the club make a return on the continent where they took part in the 2016 Caf Confederation Cup but has also been by marred by administrative wrangles and several instances of player welfare issues.

[email protected]