Wakiso protest Makerere ‘refereeing favours’

Wakiso Hill coach Rogers Nkugwa was charged like a raging bull at the final whistle of his sides’ stoppage time 1-0 away loss to Makerere University in their Fufa Women Super League (FWSL) meeting on Saturday.

Nkugwa had avoided the technical bench and dressing rooms all game, intimating to whoever cared to listen that had he been in the dugout, “there would be chaos” because of the way he suspected the referee Ismail Matovu would handle the game.

What seemed an unprofessional gesture turned out to be a true move of self restraint but one that was lost at the final whistle when Nkugwa charged at the referee. But he was quickly thwarted by Makerere fans, most of them students of the university. He was eventually carried away by some of his colleagues in the game but kept insisting he had a score to settle with Makerere coach Fred Ndawula. Ndawula is a former referee but has also been accused to be too close too to them for anyone’s comfort because they train at Makerere under the watch of one of the university’s tutors Brian Miiro Nsubuga – also head of their standing committee at Fufa.

There is no concrete evidence to pin the performance of referees to their bosses at Makerere but for starters, the pre-match reports for this encounter were printed without the officials' names 

Nkugwa is just the first to get physical but not the first to complain about referees during encounters with Makerere. Kawempe complained last season and this season and an official there believes they will never get maximum points from Makerere because of the nature of officiating in those encounters.

Wakiso were indeed the victims of some controversial decisions. One came deep in the second half, when their striker Esther Anzoo seemed to run around the Makerere keeper Grace Akatuhurira, as the latter collided with a teammate, to slot the ball into the back of the net. But play was instead restarted from the box and not the centre line as Anzoo was judged to have made the foul.

The Wakiso players also accused the referee of asking one of his assistants to raise the offside flag when they were launching a counter attack towards the end of regulation time.

Wakiso were definitely the better team of the day but were also guilty of failing to put away their chances and Makerere capitalized on a late defensive lapse by the otherwise solid Fatumah Nakasumba, who cleared the last play of the game behind for a corner.

Sharon Namatovu duly punished Wakiso from the setpiece to earn her side a double over Wakiso and also give them only their second win of the season.

Fufa Women Super League

Results

UMHS 0-0 Kampala Queens

Makerere University 1-0 Wakiso Hill

Kawempe Muslim 2-1 Rines SS

She Maroons 2-0 Asubo Ladies

FWSL Table

Kawempe Muslim       14        9          4          1          26        9          31

Kampala Queens         13        7          5          1          18        8          26

She Maroons               14        6          4          4          23        15        22

Uganda Martyrs          14        5          5          4          16        15        20

Rines SS WFC            14        4          4          6          15        24        16

Lady Doves                13        4          3          6          18        17        15

Makerere University   14        2          9          3          14        18        15

UCU Lady Cardinals  13        3          5          5          9          11        14

Wakiso Hill WFC       13        3          3          7          12        20        12

Asubo Ladies              13        2          4          7          14        26        10