Nine UPL clubs to boycott Fufa meet

Unless something dramatic happened overnight, nearly all StarTimes Uganda Premier League (SUPL) clubs will not attend today’s scheduled consultative meeting with Fufa ahead of the 2020/21 football season.
Nine out of 16 top-flight clubs on May 8 emailed the league secretariat, and later followed it with a letter reminder last evening, informing them that they will not be attending the meeting.
These include 16-time record league winners SC Villa, six-occasion champions Express, West Nile outfit Onduparaka, Busoga United, Kyetume, Mbarara City, Bright Stars, Wakiso Giants and Bul.
The letter, with all nine chairmen’s names appended against their clubs, was signed by Mwine Mpaka, the Mbarara City chairperson.
The issues
“The under listed club chairmen have noted with concern the following anomalies that we would like to draw your attention to,” it reads, “The invitation to discuss Club Licensing and League Reforms in one meeting is ineffective."
“And (it) will not deliver the desired outcome of the meeting. (Also) The notice given is rather too short for us to make the necessary preparations and consultations.” It continues:
“We had earlier planned for a similar meeting scheduled for June 18, 2020 as communicated by you on the UPL forum.

Separate meeting
“Owing to the above, therefore, we have unanimously agreed not to attend the scheduled meeting due on June 10, 2020.”

The chairmen proceeded to offer suggestions going forward: “Organize a separate meeting for CEOs to discuss Club Licensing (and) organize a separate meeting for Club Chairmen to discuss strategic Issues affecting the future of the League.”
That would leave only league champions Vipers SC, 13-time winners KCCA, taxmen URA and newcomers Myda as club representatives. The would-be 16th club, UPDF, are still awaiting a decision after another Big League side, Ndejje, lodged a complaint over their promotion.

In a circular sent to topflight and second division clubs last week, Fufa said the meetings, the first today, and the next with Big League clubs on Friday, will focus on club licensing for the upcoming season and the proposed competitions reforms.

The league secretariat has, however, dismissed the boycott, saying the meeting is on.

“We do not recognise this letter since the members purporting to be represenatitives of the listed clubs have not appended their signatures individually,” read a letter signed by UPL CEO Bernard Bainamani last evening.

“UPL recognises official communications from individual clubs signed by the Club CEO or Chairman or President.”

In a circular sent to topflight and second division clubs last week, Fufa said the meetings, the first today, and the next with Big League clubs on Friday, will focus on club licensing for the upcoming season and the proposed competitions reforms.

But Busoga United chairperson Dinah Nyago says the whole meet up at Fufa is ambiguous.

“The invitation is vague,” she told Daily Monitor yesterday, “And so is the agenda. You can’t mix up issues.”

However, going bythe previous wrangles in local football and gimmicks, the meeting going ahead - even with some of the boycotting clubs in attendance, is something that should not shock you if it happens.

Background
Fufa in March announced a proposal to have the number of Uganda Premier League (UPL) clubs reduced from 16 to 12, as part of wider reforms to professionalise football, a move that was largely scorned by clubs.
SC Villa CEO Mubiru said: “What we are asking Fufa is, ‘what is the problem? If we have no problem, then what are we solving by reducing the clubs?’ The problem now is lack of infrastructure like stadiums, let us discuss that.”
Reacting in the aftermath of the proposals, KCCA vice chairman Aggrey Ashaba said “A solution must match the challenge. In this case the challenge of clubs is not league size per se; it’s rather governance and finance.
“Quality can be fixed via licensing and other regulatory frameworks. The challenge of the country is the youth bulge.
League champions Vipers said through their spokesman Abdu Wasike that “As a club, our position is that 12 teams minimises football distribution in the country.”

How it will work
According to the Fufa proposal, the 2020/21 season will be a transition period; with UPL clubs starting out at the usual 16 before six are relegated, instead of the current three.
This is to ensure the take-off 2021/22 season begins with 12, which include the two that will have been promoted from the Big League. Currently, three get promoted.
Instead of the two home and away rounds currently, the 2021/22 league season will be played over three rounds.

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