Referees betting, fixing soccer games - officials

Kampala- An open secret for long, but not anymore. It was let out of the bag live on national television on Monday Night’s NTV Press Box that Ugandan referees are actually betting on local football matches, and are involved - together with some club officials – in fixing games.

Reports of club officials conniving with referees, certain players and coaches have often filtered through in hushed undertones, with the local refereeing body banning some guilty parties silently and clubs doing the same to some players involved in thieving silence.

But with heighted increase of these cases as clubs fight relegation and others doing all within their powers to win the Azam Uganda Premier League (AUPL) title, something had to be done.

Suspicious decisions from match officials involving controversial penalties for Mbarara’s 1-0 win over Proline, Express’ late leveller against URA at Namboole, a wrongly ruled-out Jackson Nunda goal for KCCA for offside in the 1-1 draw with Mbarara to mention but a few have all raised eyebrows.

The above decisions, in some cases, incite the fans, leading to crowd trouble, and could cost some teams a place in topflight football or a league title.

“Sometimes the decisions taken by some referees are deliberately wrong,” admitted Ali Waiswa, assistant to Ronnie Kalema, the Fufa Referees Standing Committee chairman, on NTV Press Box.

“Me as a senior I talk to them but you can take a cow to the well but you can’t force it to drink the water.”
Waiswa also confirmed that some referees receive bribes via Mobile Money to give away games, but could not reveal names. “We have scenarios where we train these referees but when they are at their work, they receive messages of money on their phones. This makes them easily get compromised. Some of them are betting, which is unacceptable.”

Viewers of NTV Press Box were asked whether refereeing decisions would shape the final outcome of UPL at both ends of the table, and here, Waiswa was reacting to complaints raised by Mujib Kasule, who said his club had suffered most of match officials’ incompetence.

“I will not shy away from the fact that some factors for our poor performance are our issues, but also match officials have not been on our side,” said Kasule, also a guest on the show.

“When it comes to bad decisions by referees, it is not a secret that Proline Footbal Club is the most affected club, we have videos that show all these bad decisions and it is getting out of hand. It’s an open secret that there is also match-fixing.

“The officiating has become so terrible that I have promised myself not to get to the touch line anymore because I can no longer control my emotions.

Referees’ Disciplinary Panel
“We are proud of what we are putting on the pitch because that is our hard work and integrity, if we lose, we lose, if we win, we win.”

The Fufa executive early this month appointed a Referees Disciplinary Panel which includes retired Fifa referee Ali Tomusange, Beach Soccer’s Deo Mutabazi and Mandela National Stadium, Namboole managing director Jamil Ssewanyana to watch referees conduct for the remainder of the season.
This could be interpreted as a stern indictment on the Kalema-led referees standing committee as having failed in their mandate.

“We are going to investigate these cases and reprimand the culprits. That will awaken the referees and bring back sanity and confidence,” Ssewanyana told Daily Monitor, “I still need to see terms of references, guidelines and reports from committee.”
The Press Boxers opined that while referees are in the spotlight right now, Fufa should also be more creative to improve on the match officials welfare.

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