Lessons of SC Villa’s Masaka travails shouldn’t pass us by

Sc Villa assistant coach, Paul Muktabala’s Facebook page lit up enticingly a few days back when he painted a rather unflinching portrait of the Jogoos’ decision to call Masaka their home.
Muktatabala, a sharply intelligent ex-international who has a refreshing enthusiasm to go along with, wrote thus:

“Every time SC Villa plays league games in [Kampala] or its surrounds, thousands of our fans are able to attend those matches.
But none of that money gets back to the SC Villa account [because], as league rules dictate, money from gate collections is all taken by the hosting team.

“Unfortunately, when SC Villa hosts its matches at our Masaka Recreation Ground, we’re playing in front of almost an empty stadium save for a few games. Little is received in the coffers of our club.”

When your columnist met Mukatabala midweek, he made it abundantly clear – perhaps unsurprisingly – that his bosses have latched on to the idea of Villa swapping Masaka for Kampala next season purely on financial grounds.

The corroding effects of meagre home takings have become more apparent for the record 16-time national champions.

Huge fan base
How times change! Villa had initially hoped to tap into what it thought was a huge fan base in a town that birthed some of its greatest players. The club’s top brass has, however, been forced to admit its error of judgment after being put off by the sparseness at Masaka Recreation Ground.

Observers hold that Villa officials should have known better after URA FC and the now defunct Nalubaale FC burnt their fingers via a carbon copy undertaking in years gone by. Both clubs thought they would be greeted by legions of fans (seen at Masaza Cup matches) when they set up shop in the outposts of Lugazi and Buikwe.

They, however, got a response that was at best apathetic and at worst frigid.
Observers attributed this to the fact that the clubs in question made a fatal decision to only play their home matches in the respective outposts.
The clubs never really pitched camp in places they dared to call home. To worsen matters, they never thought to add into their ranks the odd player hailing from the outpost in question.

Different ideologies
So, nothing about the clubs or their alleged presence resonated with locals in the respective outposts.
Trying to reinvent the wheel without any apparent shadow of guilt was always bound to be a hideously bad thing for Villa to do. And so it has turned out to be!

If Mukatabala’s word is to be believed, Villa will return to Kampala next season with its tail between the legs. Hopefully past mistakes won’t be repeated. As Stephen King once said: “Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.”