When Ugandan became first Black African to get Fifa badge

My father’s sporting spirit was developed way back by my grandfather, Tera Womeraka, who was a welfare officer with the Uganda Cranes.
Little Daniel used to tag along with his father whenever he went with the national team. Those days the most popular tournament was the Gossage Cup, the precursor to the present-day East and Central Africa Challenge Cup.
Nkata started his footballing activities as a referee in the mid-1950s, leading him to become a member of the Uganda Football Referees Association.
On December 13, 1959, he officiated as a linesman during the Olympic qualifier between Uganda and Ethiopia at Nakivubo Stadium.
This and previous performances were noticed by the colonial administrators who sponsored him for a sports administration scholarship in London at Lilleshall National Sports Centre.
From London, he proceeded to Macolin in Switzerland for a Fifa referee course, from where he was awarded a Fifa badge in 1960.
As Uganda prepared for independence in October 1962, an international football mini-tournament dubbed the Independence Cup was organised involving Harambee Stars of Kenya, the Black Stars of Ghana and a team from Britain called Isthmian league club.
Nkata was the central referee during the final game between Uganda and Ghana, which the West Africans won.
Besides his refereeing roles, he was also secretary general of the Uganda Football Association which later went on to become Fufa.
Among the people he worked with include Jolly Joe Kiwanuka, the founder of Express Football Club, Balamaze Lwanga and Polycarp Kakooza.
As a Fifa referee, Nkata trained others to follow in his footsteps - the likes of Edward Bukenya and Mubanda went through his hands to be central men on the football pitch.
He called off his football activities around 1966 and left the stage for others to take on from where he had stopped.
As they say, water flows where it has ever flowed. In the early 1980s, my father decided to go back to his first love, football, though this time not on the field but as a writer.
He was one of the first, if not the first Uganda to archive the history of football in Uganda. He spent much of his time researching on the subject, knowing where the first pitch in Uganda was and he knew many, if not all, the key pioneer players of the beautiful game.
During his writing days, he had two columns titled Flashback and Stars of the Past in now the defunct Soccer world magazine.
Among the stars of the past he profiled were the likes of Edward Muteesa, the former Kabaka of Buganda and Uganda’s first president, and Samson Kisekka, the former prime minister and vice president of Uganda.
Others included George Kamba, Jimmy Sewava, Naphtali Musoke, Stephen Ibale, and Manasseh Owiny.”
Despite his father’s efforts to not only to develop the game, but also preserve its history for future reference, Ian is saddened that the current football administrators in the country have not only failed to pick on from where Daniel Nkata left off, but they have also failed to recognise the efforts of their predecessors who set a foundation on which they are priding in.

Starting next week, we shall run a five-part witness special on the return of
Kabaka Muteesa’s remains in 1971