Magogo has put business before football - Kasule

Who is Jiba for starters?
I was born on June 15 1979 in Wandegeya to Hajj Musa Kasule. I did my Primary Education at Kibuli Demonstration School before I joined Kibuli SSS from Senior One up to Senior Six.
I started playing organised football in P.3 and while in S.3 I joined the defunct Coffee SC. In 1997, I joined KCC before I sat for my S.6 exams the following year.
In 1999, I left Uganda for the US where I joined Albama A& M University to pursue a Bachelor of Science in Economics. I returned in 2003 and rejoined KCCA as captain. In 2004, I joined the national team until 2006 when I retired from football altogether at the age 27.

I then became an academy owner and became a Fifa Football Agent, football pundit at KFM and also had a column in Saturday Monitor called Mujib’s Prediction.
In 2009, I bought Nalubaale FC because my soccer academy had become established and thus the birth of Proline. I became the Uganda Super League secretary in 2010 and this entity was charged with professionalising the topflight league. I became the Fufa vice-president from 2011 up-to 2014.

What exactly went wrong with the current federation which you were initially part of?
The agenda became different from what I anticipated. As football administrators, our main aim is to protect and develop the game. The ball doesn’t speak, it depends on us to fight for it not to abuse it. I realized quickly that the people who took charge in 2013 saw football purely as business.

The agenda became business first and then football later. As a person who has grown up in the game, cherished the game, I didn’t like the direction and eventually it led to my resignation from the entire setup and return to football.
Their mantra is - football is a business, it is our time to make money. Football lovers don’t want to hear that. That is how the proposed money oriented Super League in Europe collapse. That perception needs to change. You work for football and then business comes in naturally.

How did you miss out on the opportunity of becoming Fufa president when Dr. Lawrence Mulindwa extended it to you in 2013?

When he announced his departure two days before the nominations during an executive meeting, we were all shocked. We had always known that he was coming back and no one dared stand against him. After the meeting, he went to his office and sent for me and asked me to take over. 
He said ‘Sheikh’ (as he calls me) it is your time to take this project forward.’ At the time, personally I felt I was not ready because I had just joined the top administration for two years, I still had my projects and was also in-charge of the league administration.
Secondly,  I also didn’t know why he was quitting. That formed my decision to decline. I told him to stay one more term to mentor me and be ready. He refused and I proposed to Moses Magogo and promised to work under him in the league and in the technical area.

The executive was divided,  some didn’t want Magogo. The executive members left the two of us in the room to zero on one and I immediately told Magogo to take over.  I don’t regret that decision.  Magogo was the right person in the succession queue.
Though we didn’t believe he could achieve much, we gave him the benefit of doubt.  I’m not responsible for whatever he has done.

Has he achieved anything tangible in your view?
He has achieved a lot of things and he deserves credit.  We knew it would be a tall order for anyone replacing Mulindwa.  The most important aspect being where the money was going to come from. Under Mulindwa, there was no money in Fufa.
Fufa was getting US$250, 000 (about Shs1b) annually from Fifa and then Shs300m in Uganda Cranes’ sponsorship from MTN that was all. It was nowhere near what the federation wanted. This man used to inject his own money. What we give Magogo credit for is that he has managed to find the resources.

Indeed leaders come from God; Magogo was also lucky that soon the Fifa money increased, government money came in in billions and has created synergies with corporate companies for sponsorship. Mulindwa left at the time we needed someone to push us over the line to go to Afcon, Magogo did that. During his eight years in charge, Cranes improved in terms of preparation and generally the performances improved.

Fufa now has a corporate structure with well-organized offices and staff. The football home is now a complex. He has improved on what Mulindwa left and has transcended the political-football hierarchy to get to the Caf executive which puts Uganda on a pedestal.
Mulindwa left when we were on the verge of creating the women league, Magogo started it and almost qualified the women national team for the World Cup.

Where has he fallen short then?
The biggest mistake he has made is to think and make Ugandans believe that football starts and ends with Uganda Cranes. In so doing, his administration has neglected the biggest pillars of the game – the youth and top flight league.

He has engineered small successes at the expense of the game. The clubs are purely dependent on those individuals that run them. The league is not considered a big entity. In Uganda, they will stop a league because there is a Cranes regional tour, friendly game or even Fufa drum tourney.
The youth league has been limited to Kampala and Wakiso, they have no stadiums or qualified coaches. The juniors’ league is a Fifa program that Fufa joined to get money. They brought it, imposed it on the Uganda Premier League clubs because Fifa demands it has to be national, and promised many things.

They had Fifa donated jerseys and promised to pay youth coaches $300 (Shs1.1m) which immediately was reduced to $100 (Shs370, 000) before it was abolished. The transport to matches also disappeared in the second year.
You can’t have a youth league that gives a chance to only 400 players yet the nation has about two million boys in the same category. Areas like Hoima, Sebei, Kasese, Gulu there is no is no youth football because there is no UPL club. Fufa doesn’t have any youth football tourney from age seven to 17 running well.

The likes of Allan Okello, they front as success stories, came from Kibuli SS not Fufa junior league as it is being sold.
The other fault I have for Magogo is the accountability and integrity issues. Cranes has six multinational sponsors, gate collections and Shs10b as money channels but still Fufa complains of having less money. The worst thing that can happen to a football manager is the players lose respect for you or you lose respect for you players that means the integrity of the game has completely gone out.
In football, integrity or losing the dressing room is the last line of defence. When the Fufa president comes out and makes harsh statements on national team players and players respond that shows the mistrust between the two parties. The players know that you’re just using them to make money.

Didn’t you foresee the articles hindering you to get on the ballot paper for the Fufa presidency race?
Yes, I was the centre-man when making the Fufa constitution back in 2012.  For the record, nothing in it bars me from standing because it only states three requirements – you must be a Ugandan between 30 years and 70 – I am inside that.
You must be a Ugandan who has lived here for the last two years, I have been here for years. It also requires you to have served seven years in the last ten years of football administration. That is what we made with Fifa in 2012. But what has stopped me are the additional electoral code, Fufa election guidelines, Fufa roadmap that accompany the constitution.

Magogo is the architect of all these documents. He will apply them depending on what he wants to tie you up and every election they are changed. Just an example, last time, I had a villa letter, Buganda letter and Vipers recommendation, they told villa to denounce me.
This time, I got a letter from Bright Stars and sent it in to Fufa for nomination; they refused to receive it. I sent it via email and they told me to wait until May 24. Now things had changed. He is the one who supervises his own election, he knew when to release the forms and when to return.

Our nomination papers were thrown at us to be worked on in 48 hours. The first challenge was to get nominators, then getting an executive and then traversing the country, certifying academic documents, talking to delegates all in 48 hours. Most delegates were not forthcoming.
Some broke down and told me they had already signed with Magogo, we moved on. We later learned that Magogo had told anyone willing to stand for other positions that they must support him and he also backed them to win their positions. He paid up the nomination fees for all the regional and special interest group delegates and he had all signing for him including the regional CEOs.

He has also changed the constitution to fit his desires. The constitution we made said the 16 UPL clubs will elect one of the chairmen to represent them in Fufa as vice president yet right now the one in the role (Nakiwala Kiyingi) is not a chairman or even CEO of any club. They have even included the Fufa Big League that elected Nakiwala because the UPL bosses flatly rejected her. Magogo knew Nakiwala didn’t have support in the UPL and concocted the Fufa Big League in the constitution without the members’ knowledge.

What next after the heartache of not making the presidential shortlist due next weekend?
I have appealed to the Fufa Appeals Committee who forwarded me to the Fufa Electoral Committee (FEC). Ironically, this is the same Committee (FEC) I am reporting. Nonetheless, I told the FEC that they are not the right people to handle this election process.
Magogo gives them a mandate to bring his people and see he comes as a sole candidate and he rewards them after. That is why you see Sam Bakiika who was the chairman last time now works with Fufa as is his former Yusuf Awuye (now heading FEC).

Then the FEC conducts regional elections yet they (regional associations) are supposed to be independent. Like you don’t see National Election Commission boss Simon Byabakama conducting NUP or NRM elections. Association should send the people they want, not Fufa to decide for them.
I am challenging the nomination period. It is designed to be impossible yet originally it is supposed to be the simplest thing. President Museveni wouldn’t have allowed presidential contestants like John Katumba on the ballot paper if he behaved the Fufa way.

That is against the principles of fair play. I know the appeal in Fufa won’t succeed and I’m planning to go to Fifa and later the Court for Arbitration for Sport (CAS).I will not go via local public courts on this matter.

Why not think of going for a merger with fellow challengers; Ali Ssekatawa and Allan Ssewanyana to front a stronger force?
We had talked with Ssekatawa to form a force. I didn’t speak to Ssewanyana though. But I don’t need anybody’s backing because I’m the stronger candidate.

Did Mulindwa support you?
The first bid I asked for the endorsement and Vipers gave it to me. Mulindwa and Vipers knew me as a football person. I wonder how the players and coaches associations say they don’t know me. Nominating someone doesn’t mean they were going to vote for you.
I was very confident that I had the Super league clubs backing. Magogo knows I have the support of the people. He has ruled with fear. Journalists, people at the federation, delegates are all working with untold fear. Magogo knew he wouldn’t take a chance with a secret ballot.

The public is 100 percent behind me. I would rather lose the 88 delegates and stay with the public. Magogo has lost the public and concentrated on the delegates. That is why recently they are frequently forcing themselves on the public by appearing on radios and TVs.
If you want to know that something is wrong, take note of Edgar Watson’s baffling silence. He is never active in anything fishy. That is why they have created three deputy CEOs to render him irrelevant.

Were you happy with Express winning the league trophy?
Absolutely good. I have been happy with the progress at Express even before they won the league. The Fufa administration wanted to weaken these traditional clubs. In my manifesto, I go for making the traditional clubs again, because they have the numbers and history. Villa and Express have struggled in the last ten years and it is representative of the struggles in the league.
They are not where they want to be yet they can dream. URA with all the money they are not winning the league. That means we have two giants (KCCA and Express) back and we now have to fight to see if Villa can also bounce back.

Was it right to end the league season prematurely again?
It is showing that the people who run the league don’t learn or they don’t know. The UPL is dominated by the federation. Getting the trophy in the boardroom should be the last resort. It is only the victor who is happy. They should have been tracking the pandemic, making projections and planning accordingly.
You take away three weeks for a Uganda Cranes friendly with South Africa with the clubs doing nothing. No single meeting with the clubs on the possible way forward was sought. It is painful to give away the trophy in the boardroom again.

The StarTimes league sponsorship deal was only negotiated by the Fufa president, clubs don’t know what is in the contracts. StarTimes and Fufa have also been on the rocks over some agreements. That was not the case with SuperSport that insisted on working directly with the clubs. They have not paid the other two quarters of the stipulated four quarters that make 60m per season. Clubs are closed in a 10-year marriage they don’t know.

Express winning coach Wasswa Bbosa is not qualified to handle Caf games. As the coaches’ instructor, what happened to Caf coaching courses?
A coaching course is similar to a pilot course – determined hours in class. For you to get a Caf coaching license you must have accumulated 480 hours. But they break it down four you. You do eight hours then you get Caf C and go for practice. You come back and do 120 hours and get Caf B.

The entire process to get Caf A takes four years. In Uganda we do 120 hours in three weeks at Njeru because logistically that is what we can do.
 We don’t have online studies because most of our coaches don’t have it.
In 2017, then Caf president Ahmad Ahmad called for a change of coaching syllabus and advised each country to create its own training manual. Fufa has not taken up that project to create the manual. There is a backlog of coaches and Wasswa Bbosa is one of those affected. Fufa is reluctant to invest in it.

I feel sorry for Bbosa because he has labored to get where he is (Caf B), he had the talent but was handicapped in education but I told him we don’t need his English but knowledge. It hurts that someone will be considered head coach when Express plays on the continent instead of Bbosa.
We should by this time be considering our coaches to be taking on the Caf Pro that is held by the likes of Pisto Mosimane( South African three-time Caf Champions league winning coach, now at Egyptian giants Ahly). 

Over to Proline, why is the club ever moving back and forth in the topflight league?
We are at the playoff stage of the Fufa Big League but every day that passes it becomes almost impossible that it will be played because we will require much time to recover from the lengthy break.
When they gave away the trophy and started transfers on July 1, essentially you’re saying Proline players should move on some even outside the country.

Kitara joined two weeks before the start of the season and suffered until it was relegated. By September when we play, most teams would have already prepared for the league. The licensing requirements are also a challenge. Fufa should have ended everything at the same time.
Proline we are not yet ready to be a mainstay in UPL for many reasons. One, it is expensive, we are a club without sponsors, we can’t pay players very well or what they deserve so it is difficult for us to maintain the good players.

That said, proline remains the only club to produce players from seven years to maturity. Players like Nodin Bunjo, Pius Obua, Bright Anukani, Hakim Kiwanuka, Ivan Bogere, Alpha Ssali and Arthur Kigundu are all shining at the moment.
Anukani’s dismal show at KCCA on the loan spell is down to KCCA’s managerial changes that affected his progress. With Mike Mutebi, Anukani was his style of player but his replacement Morley Byekwaso has a different philosophy in which he doesn’t fit.

What happened to the academy land president Museveni promised to Proline when Rio Ferdinand visited in 2017?
In 2010, the government of Uganda gave us 30 acres of land near Protea Hotel in Entebbe. Rio Ferdinand mobilised £1m (About Shs5b) for the construction of the academy. Some officials interjected and the Ferdinands thought I was lying and wanted to sell the land for personal gains.
Big government officials tried to erase our land title from the records but we quickly knew and went to court which ordered the ministry of Lands to reinstate our title. We got a letter from the State House indicating that President Museveni was now saying we had stolen the land.

Ferdinand was bitter that we made him look like a fool to the people he had solicited the money from but recently they saw us in court and knew we were serious. 
Recently, we met former Lands Minister Beti Kamya (now the new IGG) who proposed giving us another piece of land.
Uganda lost a fortune because Manchester United had picked interest.
 
We wanted to create a state of the art facility for warm weather training that was going to house over 1000 boys and girls. 
All that was lost because some people think football is for ‘bayaye’  (read goons) and just for leisure.

UGANDA’S FUTURE 

What does the future hold for Ugandan football?
For me, it is very grim because we are not running it in the right way. Youth football, the bedrock of any country’s football system, is a non-starter. However in Uganda we are still endowed with talent and people willing to invest against many odds.
People like Dinah Nyago, Ssekatawa and Mulindwa will continue to invest even when they reap virtually nothing. We need to reorganize the game and then be able to dream again.