Top flight league continues to suffer stinking politics from repugnant administrators

KCC and Express are some of the 14 of 16 topflight clubs that signed the deed of adherence, SuperSport’s minimum standards expected of clubs before live televising of games can resume. PHOTO ISMAIL KEZAALA.

What you need to know:

League champions KCC and Uganda Cup winners SCVU fell short on the continent but it is the distasteful approach from alleged leaders of the game regarding SuperSport broadcast deal that has seen the country nurse a heavy object in their throat.

KAMPALA

What is bewildering is that the topflight mire has carried on for this long, so long it is could outlive the five-year $5m (13b) broadcast deal penned between the Uganda Super League and South African pay TV SuperSport in 2011.

What is unsurprising is the abhorring behaviour of the people in charge of our game, straight from where fish starts to rot down to the clubs.

After two seasons of no sponsorship and of two leagues (although the USL ran out of steam in their second year), reality sunk in as majority of the clubs in the break-away Fufa Super League (FSL) struggled to pay their players.

But with Fufa president Moses Magogo reciting reconciliation as he tries to clean the mess he helped create while operating under Lawrence Mulindwa - first as competition committee secretary and then as VP, an MoU with USL was reached early in the year.

The MoU would see the USL control the commercialisation of the newly christened ‘Uganda Premier League’ and Fufa retaining authority on all things football including assigning match officials, implementing rules and ensuring clubs honour contractual obligations. It was to get into effect starting with the 2014/15 season.
The two-year understanding, in which SuperSport was entered as partners, was to see the aforementioned disburse funds to USL, who would in turn pay clubs, match officials and Fufa through the federation.

This was one of several such ‘marriages’ we had witnessed since wrangles went through the roof when Fufa withdrew powers to run the league from the USL before the 2012/13 season. It was signed by Fufa’s Magogo and USL chairman Kavuma Kabenge in the presence of State Minister for Sports Charles Bakkabulindi.

Would the marriage stand the test of time?
At least by name, and despite several camps giving conflicting fixtures of the 2014/15 season, the league did kick off under the flagship Uganda Premier League (UPL), which nomenclature was just to give a common ground.

Also, 14 of the 16 topflight clubs went ahead to sign the deed of adherence, SuperSport’s minimum standards expected of clubs before live televising of games can resume two years on since wrangles forced the South African broadcasters to take a temporary break from the deal.

Vipers and SC Victoria University are the two clubs that ha by press time refused to sign; Magogo dealing with Kabenge – the man Fufa had banned in one of their underhand machinations (for the sake of Vipers) and USL getting more money in commissions than clubs among the reasons the two gave. Vipers are funded by former Fufa head Mulindwa, who has since fallen out with Mogogo although the two publicly deny, while SCVU is owned by Serbian Simo Dubajic.

As a result, SuperSport has put on hold their return and clubs have henceforth not refused any money for the first round. Most clubs have consequently struggled to pay their coaches and players, ironically SCVU among them. SuperSport has made it clear that it is prudent that Vipers and Vipers append their signatures on the deed so that they find a league operating on the same pedestal.

The broadcasters were yet to respond to a letter from Fufa, through USL’s Kabenge, asking for their official position and guidance on the next step.

While Vipers and SCVU could have a point or two, a league that has messed around with someone bring billions of money into the economy has no moral authority to demand perfection when they are the true definition if immorality.

Whichever egos are being traded, our leaders must wake up and acknowledge that we need to start somewhere. One will hope they get out of the gutter.

Champs KCC, SCVU continental exploits
This was not an overly bad year for KCC and SCVU, the former winning their second successive league title under coach George ‘Best’ Nsimbe and the latter claiming the Uganda Cup under Morley Byekwaso a season after promotion.

KCC went on to represent Uganda in the Caf Champions League and SCVU to make a continental debut in the Confederations Cup. If anything, it was only a learning outing for SCVU as they were eliminated by the DRC’s Don Bosco at the preliminaries in February. KCC eliminated Sudan’s El Merreikh by beating them home and away but fell to Zambia’s Nkana Red Devils in the first round.