StarTimes hopeful night ties gamble can take off

Return Of The Night Games. John Adriko (L) of SC Villa vies for the ball with Kirinya Jinja SSS’ talisman Joel Madondo in the only night game played thus far in this season’s StarTimes Uganda Premier League at Mandela National Stadium in Namboole on March 6. There were some shades of darkness on the pitch as some lights failed to come on but overall the light was sufficient for a good game of football. PHOTO BY JOHN BATANUDDE

By and large, the first match lived up to the billing, only that lights were dim at the Kireka end with a few cases of insecurity after the game. StarTimes are will to pay the floodlights cost of Shs7m.

Motivated by the saying; where there is a will there is a way, Uganda Premier League (UPL) sponsors StarTimes are willing to burn their fingers in a bid to reawaken the concept of night football.

According to StarTimes Vice President Africa, Aldrine Nsubuga, last week’s night league game between SC Villa and Jinja SSS was supposed to be a pilot project that would inform their next step of action – whether to go in for the long haul or shelve the idea again. “Despite the big extra cost, we want to demonstrate to Ugandans that we are not in this project by mistake, we are willing to take gambles and risks to get to another level.

“The outcome of the first night game will show us what to do next. We intend to show two or three more matches before the end of the season if Wednesday’s outing is a success,” Nsubuga revealed.

He says the idea didn’t come without challenges. They wanted to stage the KCCA vs SC Villa match played over the weekend first at Namboole, but the Kasasiro boys refused to cede their home advantage and potential gate revenue.

“Like we heeded to the expanding of broadcast beyond the three stadiums we had set, we are going to sacrifice and pay the floodlights costs (estimated between Shs5m-Shs7m per match) for the benefit of the common good,” he added.

Nsubuga believes the onus is on UPL administration to sway the clubs to embrace having some night games at Namboole next season which at the moment has the luxury of floodlights.

“We hope this will build the viewership, help Namboole earn more revenue and test their lights and also give players a feel of what to expect when they go for international matches,” Nsubuga stressed. By and large, the first match lived up to the billing, only that the lights were dim at the Kireka end with a few cases of insecurity after the game.

UPL CEO Bernard Bainamani is, however, convinced the pilot project will succeed because most clubs assented to it in their last meeting. “It was decided at the forum of clubs and agreed upon by all the stakeholders. The broadcaster agreed to televise the night games and secured the stadium floodlights bill.

SC Villa coach Douglas Bamweyana, meanwhile, embraced the idea before putting the day’s result a 2-1 defeat to Kirinya-Jinja solely on his side’s inadequacies.

“It’s alright. There’s no excuse for the result we got. We just had a very bad day at the office! Night games are played all over the world. You just get used to them! We weren’t affected by the timing of the match; we were affected by our own mistakes on the pitch,” he stated. After the victory Kirinya-

SSS coach Abbey Kikomeko revealed he had cautioned his boys to do the job early and avoid the excitement of playing under the floodlights for the first time.

The league had last witnessed floodlight matches in 2012 during the SuperSport sponsorship era.