Why KCCA FC must be keen to partake of home comforts

Until they lost 1-0 in regulation time away to Al-Masry, KCCA FC had achieved the astonishing feat of scoring in each continental game they figured in this season.

The statistic may verge on the minimalist, but Mike Mutebi’s side gained fresh resonance when, in running Mamelodi Sundowns scared, it scored two well-taken goals against the reigning African champions across two legs.

While the goals — each scored by Geoffrey Serunkuma — created a vague impression of symmetry, they did not insulate the Kasasiro Boys from exiting African club football’s showpiece tournament.

The 3-2 aggregate loss at the hands of Masandawana left KCCA FC in the Caf Champions League’s second cousin, having to better Al-Masry over two legs to reach the money-spinning group stage of the Caf Confederation Cup.

The Ugandan champions lost their goal scoring streak in Ismailia, but solaced in a penalty shootout win that put paid with blanket certainty the interests of their Egyptian hosts in continental football.

After another trip to North Africa (this time in Morocco) saw the Yellow Lads turn up frustratingly silent last Sunday morning, the growing temptation is for the Ugandan champions — or more realistically its faithful — to admit to their road hollowness and attempt to lay it to rest at Lugogo. The Kasasiro Boys did just that by following up their 3-0 hiding against FUS Rabat with a marginal 2-1 win over Club Africain on Tuesday.

The Kasasiro Boys are unbeaten at home in continental engagements, and will as such be expected to go to punishing lengths to get maximum points when they host Nigeria’s Rivers United on Martyrs Day.

Having tasted defeat only once in matches they have played across all competitions at Phillip Omondi Stadium, KCCA FC can rest assured that they won’t be embarking on an unenviable task.

Sledgehammer blows on the road can more than be softened by home comforts. If purposeful strides at Lugogo garner maximum points for Mike Mutebi’s charges in the two remaining home fixtures (they also welcome the visit of FUS Rabat on July 2 with Ibrahim Saddam Juma available for selection), a landmark quarterfinal berth may well be within touching distance.

KCCA FC should not get ahead of themselves though. As Mutebi himself has been keen to stress, marginal wins might not be perfectly adequate. The Kasasiro Boys might find themselves having to win comprehensively to get into the top two echelons of a group that is as tight as a miser’s purse.

Hooliganism continues to rock local football’s boat

Ugandan football officials could be more worried about hooliganism than they care to admit. The vice retained a dark grip on the 2016/2017 Uganda Premier League season that ground to a halt last Saturday.

Jinja was very much the totemic face of rowdy behaviour in the season that’s just ended with matches at Kakindu Stadium serially characterised by running battles between stone-throwing fans and teargas-firing police officers.

The last of such acts had a telling effect on one of the season’s intriguing subplots. It rendered what happened in last Saturday’s relegation six pointer between Police FC and Lweza FC, certainly a win for the latter, futile.

Make no mistake, though, hooliganism was glamourised and amplified in other venues that hosted Uganda Premier League matches.

Lweza fans themselves pelted an assis-tant referee with anything their hands could pick up after their team gave away a pair of penalties against KCCA FC at Phillip Omondi Stadium.
It was at the same venue that KCCA FC and Onduparaka FC fans locked horns. Indeed, Onduparaka fans have been emblematic of the growing problem that is hooliganism. The Arua-based outfit was recently fined Shs 1m after its fans were deemed to have been bent on making mischief during their 4-1 loss away to Vipers SC.

There were still more shenanigans to come from them. The sheer horror of images of Onduparaka fans trying to wrest a gun from a livid soldier who owes his allegiances to The Saints has shocked the conscience of Uganda.

The confrontation was as shocking as anything anyone could ever encounter. It has stoked the chorus for responsible authorities to decisively deal with a cancer that is sweeping across Ugandan football.

Hooliganism cannot be wished away, and, truth be told, there is no political will to re-move all traces of the cancer.

If anything there has been an unabashed glorification of the vice. The passion of Onduparaka fans has gotten rave reviews with the bankroller of newly promoted topflight side Mbarara City going insofar as promising to copy the template.

With such mindsets, hooliganism will continue to cast a long shadow over Ugandan football. It may be long before responsible authorities lay to rest the long and lingering possibility of hooliganism rearing its ugly head.

We after all got to see a great bulk of it at the Copa Coca Cola National Post-Primary Schools Championship in Masaka.
Hooliganism sure is fashionable in this banana republic.