SC Villa is now yours 

Umpteenth Coming. SC Villa will march into the new season with optimism that they’re past their darkest days. PHOTOS | EDDIE CHICCO & JOHN BATANUDDE

What you need to know:

  • New Working Guide. For Shs50,000 per season, a Villa subscribed member will have season tickets to all home games, as well as right to vote the club president. However, some shareholders contest the new Trust.

A sporting outfit owned by a community inherently espouses close social and economic bonds with its people.
Under this setting, paid up members of the club feel involved, and their concerns - if processes are followed through to the letter - are addressed, thus enhancing its social value.

That is the new view SC Villa interim committee have cast, or want the team fans to begin viewing themselves in. Club legend and interim chairman William Nkemba - accompaned by three Villa founding members - yesterday delivered what he believes will end the ownership and governance ills. 

Unwrapping the package
“Today,” he said, “We introduce and announce that the current and future fixed assets of Sports Club Villa shall be owned by the Villa Members Trust.”
Founding members Eriab Kamya, Dan Lule and Fred ‘Guy’ Kawuma - all masked up to the left of Nkemba at their Sheraton Hotel high table - nodded in approval.

The Villa Members Trust is incorporated under the Trustee Incorporation Act (CAP 165) as a body corporate. The Board of Trustees - consisting of seven to 13 members - shall be the custodians of the Villa Members Trust, which includes club fans, who pay Shs50,000 annual subscription.
That subscription will come with season tickets for home matches, as well as one vote for the club president every four years.

Since member registration for the 2020/21 season will be done from October 30 to December 31, we can only estimate how many Villa fans are in the country. But if we were to be modest and just say 20,000 pay up, that would give you Shs1b. 

Dissenting shareholders
Explaining how they arrived at a Trust from from SC Villa Limited, Nkemba said they had to go back to the roots in 1975 when the club were created as Nakivubo Villa.
“The Trust was created under consent and approval of founders who started and owned Villa,” he said.

However, two of 10 shareholders, who each took their 10 per cent share a decade ago, lawyers Fred Muwema and Edgar Agaba, are contesting the new developments.
“I was not consulted at all,” Agaba told Daily Monitor, “Legally, what they have done is wrong because how do you take on another wife when you haven’t divorced the current one?

“They have to come back to us as shareholders. You can’t form a Trust when you haven’t dissolved SC Villa Limited.” His fellow learned friend, Muwema, hardly differs. “I was not consulted and do not approve,” said Muwema.
“The problems of SC Villa will not be solved by a quick fix or cutting corners but rather the endearment to best practices in corporate governance.”

Blessing from Trust
Nkemba, also a shareholder of SC Villa Limited, offered: “Overtime, different companies have run the club but running the club is different from ownership.
“That is why we had to go back to the founding members and the Trust has been formed with their blessing.

“The Trust is all accommodative for those who love and cherish Villa. Everybody is free to associate provided the requirements are met.” As for SC Villa Limited, he said, “Its own directorship will decide on its dissolving. I was specific on the roots of the club and the transformations over time.”

The contestations notwithstanding, the interim committee believe that by streamlining ownership and governance, they are addressing weaknesses that have bedeviled the club for eternity.

HOW SPORTS CLUB VILLA WILL BE GOVERNED

1. Club Congress of 120 persons. Club legislative body composed of paid up Villa Trust Members.

2. Club Executive Board of 11 persons. Executive body composed of paid up Club Congress Members.

3. The Club President. Elected every four years by the Villa Members Trust Members. 
 - He/she will chair the Club Congress, Executive Board, and together with board, supervise Secretariat.

4. Club CEO employed on contract. Shall be head of Club Secretariat.