Ssimbwa remarks bring match-fixing vice back to light
Be careful about what you say for it could sure come back and bite you. If that was the piece of advice you were planning on giving Sam Ssimbwa, well guess what, it’s too late. Way too late. Chances of the erstwhile KCCA FC coach taking a bead on the advice would have been slim anyway.
Fiercely proud, Ssimbwa has bizarrely always won critical acclaim for being a loose cannon both during his playing and coaching days.
He must have thought his notorious reputation was receiving a decisive boost when told KCCA FC fans after a frustrating scoreless draw with Soana at Kavumba that he can influence the results of the club even without the blessing of his employers.
Only this time there was a radical reversal of fortunes with the mischief leaving Ssimbwa in a meat grinder.
KCCA FC has asked Ssimbwa to step aside as it looks to verify the veracity of the recording in Kavumba. The prognosis is that this action choreographed to lay down a strong marker will end up with Ssimbwa getting a tough regime of sanctions.
The reprimand will probably end up with Ssimbwa moving to another club where he will rehabilitate his bruised ego.
While Ssimbwa will live to die another day, the same will definitely not be said of Ugandan topflight league football. The topflight league was catastrophically weakened in 2003 when a matching fixing racket came to light. It has never been the same since. Gone were the fans that used to pack stadia. Gone is the passion that followed freely in bellicose veins. Gone is the excitement.
An attempt to turn the corner got a kick in the teeth when Ssimbwa lifted the lid on one of the worst kept secrets in Kavumba. Uganda club football may have been characterised by the near absence of match fixing claims in the past decade, but those in the know were never in doubt about the presence of a proverbial elephant in the room.
Ugandan club football may have faced no such encumbrances as it did during the dark days of 2003, but things have hardly been prim and proper.
There has been talk in hushed tones of powerful figures subverting sportsmanship. Since 2003, gamesmanship has in fact increased at a rapid clip. The culprits have been smart enough not to leave behind a paper trail. Well, that was until Ssimbwa let down his guard. The erstwhile KCCA FC coach’s exposure has ingrained a sense amongst Ugandan football fans of a growing inherent doubt.
Trust has always been intrinsic to the good health of the beautiful game. If it becomes a fragile commodity, progress is always curtailed.
It would be a spectacular misjudgment to think that Ssimbwa’s shenanigans wouldn’t be counterproductive.
