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Fufa decision on KCCA FC: We have been here before
ROBERT MADOI
What you need to know:
While the Fufa Competitions Department is, per stipulated rules, “the official central registry of cautions, send-off, fines and sanctions” in Ugandan club football's top flight league, Fufa delegated this responsibility to UPL.
Afternoon had turned into evening, and with that came a brace from the much-maligned Geoffrey Massa against Benin. The Cranes were desperate for a win, as Massa was for goals, during that 2010 Fifa World Cup/Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) qualifier.
Played at the Mandela National Stadium in Namboole on October 12, 2008, the stakes in the match, as many had come to see them, including Fufa, the local football governing body, were simply too high.
With qualification for the next qualifying round of the 2010 Fifa World Cup out of reach, the Cranes had something of a fighting chance to remain in contention for a berth at the 2010 Afcon. It was with sincere urgency that the fans recommended that the kitchen sink be thrown at Benin, already guaranteed to top the group.
Along with the dozen group winners, the eight highest-ranked runners-up would advance to the next qualifying round. The calculus around how those backdoor tickets would be secured was something that could only be figured out with a clear comprehension of the rules of the African football governing body, Caf.
Despite trailing 1-0 at the breather, the Cranes surprised themselves and others when they managed to maintain a sense of matter under strain. Massa, whose profligacy in front of goal had turned him into a fall guy during that campaign, spared himself any such brutal visitations by scoring in the 50th and 53rd minutes as the home side held on for what felt like a big, if consequential, win.
But while Massa's luck seemed to turn after that come-from-behind win, Ugandans would soon watch the drama unfold. A complicated and slow process by Fufa aimed at ascertaining if the Cranes had advanced to the final qualifying round for the 2010 Afcon took root. Several minutes after the final whistle had confirmed the 2-1 win over Benin at Namboole, Fufa officials were reticent on the details of the Cranes' fate.
Then Charles Masembe, the Federation’s chief executive at the time, broke the silence. Uganda, he declared, had beaten Angola to second position on account of a head-to-head tiebreaker.
Uganda had earlier, in June of 2008 to be precise, followed up a 3-1 win over the Palancas Negras in Namboole with a goalless draw in Luanda. Cranes fans listening to Masembe on local radio found the constancy of his message reassuring at a time of intense uncertainty.
Their emotional tenor would, however, soon change after discovering the extent of the administrative mess that blighted Fufa.
It turns out that Caf's position of using goal difference as the first tiebreaker had long been articulated. It is information that Uganda should have been armed with before squaring up to Benin's Squirrels.
The intent to not just win but put on a scoring clinic should have been expressed from the outset. It was not. And so the Cranes, with a measly goal difference of minus one, ended up being comfortably beaten to second place by Angola whose goal difference was plus three.
And since Angola had already qualified for the 2010 Afcon on account of being the tournament’s hosts (they were only trying to make the cut for the 2010 Fifa World Cup), Mozambique, with a whole of five points, squeezed through as the last highest-ranked runners-up in the second round of the qualifying campaign. The team's tally was half of the 10 points Uganda had managed to stitch together.
The above historical context is instructive for those trying to make sense of a sorry episode that ended up with KCCA FC losing three points and conceding as many goals in the boardroom. Since time immemorial, comprehension and execution of both the spirit and letter of the law has not quite been Fufa's strong point, if it has any.
After losing 2-0 in their backyard against KCCA FC, Mbarara City FC petitioned Fufa. An ineligible player, Gavin Kizito, had been fielded during the match. When KCCA FC was red-flagged, the club appealed on grounds that it got the all-clear to field Kizito from the Uganda Premier League (UPL).
While the Fufa Competitions Department is, per stipulated rules, “the official central registry of cautions, send-off, fines and sanctions” in Ugandan club football's top flight league, Fufa delegated this responsibility to UPL.
The latter, in an email response, told KCCA FC that there would be no sanctions in the event that Kizito was fielded against Mbarara City since its records showed he had two strikes as opposed to three.
Yet it was in the informed opinion of the Federation's Appeals Committee, sitting on January 29, 2025, that KCCA FC ran foul of the fine line between right and wrong. While it is true that this ruling could yet prove more menacing than most at Mengo imagine, we should not claim to reach our wit's end trying to comprehend it.
True, the ruling stretches the limits of what can be considered legally permissible, but the Federation has a track record of displaying such shockingly bad ineptitude.
In fact, similar cases are jammed together like rows of bad teeth. Masembe can now welcome the latest members in his club of infamy that dared to read rules in a pedestrian manner.
