Magogo continues to plead innocence in Fifa ticket saga

End of year speeches, by those in power, are always punctuated by achievements, challenges and expectations.

Fufa President Moses Magogo’s end of the year address yesterday at Fufa House in Mengo was no different. But the challenges certainly outweighed the gains.

After enumerating the success stories by the U-15 teams, women team in Cosafa and Cosafa, Cranes Afcon adventure, KCCA Cecafa triumph and the federation extension, Magogo spent a better part of his hour long speech detailing the hold backs.

First, he tried to shake the monkey off his back, by labouring to explain his innocence in the now infamous 2014 World Cup tickets scandal that had him suspended from office for two solid months. To him, all this was orchestrated by federation detractors.

“My advice to whoever is interested in football leadership especially the office of the president, go to the Fufa delegates, provide an alternative manifesto and become the president not fighting the incumbent,” he stressed. Nonetheless, he admitted the punishable offence in handling the aforesaid tickets.

“The only mistake was us not following up on the people that eventually used these tickets and this is indeed a lesson to us going forward.”

While addressing the awful infrastructure status in the country, Magogo gave hope on the progress of the Fifa funded Kadiba project and Lugazi Fufa Stadium.

“The Kadiba project (soon undergoing $1m second phase) will be available for use in 2020 and the construction of the Fufa Stadium in Lugazi will start next year.”

Fufa is also concerned by the dwindling numbers of fans that attend national team matches at Namboole and the limited usage of new technological platforms like social media to promote the local leagues.

Match fixing beyond Fufa control
The increasing match fixing allegation cases at the various tiers of Uganda football that have negatively affected sponsorship are far from being halted according to Magogo.

“We have match fixing problem, we having received allegations and many culprits have been apprehended. It is a capital offense but as Fufa match fixing goes beyond match officiating, we may have the will but the agents are very sophisticated and the means to detect them are beyond us.”

AAR bails out UPL
AAR Healthcare and Fufa offered the Uganda Premier league (UPL) fraternity the best new year gift they could think of by extending a bumper Shs400m player insurance scheme.

“Starting 2020, Fufa will offer medical insurance to all the players in the UPL. This caters for injuries, compensation for permanent disabilities as a result of injuries,” Magogo, said.

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