What Vipers, Isabirye brief marriage tells us about Ugandan club football

As a tactician, Alex Isabirye maintains—much like did in the opposition box during his playing days—a perspective that is calm but not impassive. In keeping such a stance, the 47-year-old coach—perhaps unintentionally but not unsuccessfully—reinforces an air of normalcy amid tumult. 

This could explain why he was spared grim visitations when it appeared like the wheels were coming off Bul FC's wagon last season. The Jinja-based club was in a bit of a pickle. Yet there, at probably his life’s lowest, the remarkable happened. Vipers SC handed this unassuming—even shy—tactician its coaching reins. 

Observers, who could scarcely have imagined it, hazarded a guess that the stunning upset Isabirye engineered in the Uganda Cup final that denied the Venoms a domestic cup double during the 2021/2022 season was easily the most compelling driver. They read, with great granularity, so much into the shock mid-season acquisition of Karim Ndugwa. The lanky striker was Isabirye's handy weapon of choice as Bul beat Vipers to the Uganda Cup honours in 2022.

That notwithstanding; Isabirye's appointment as Vipers head coach at the backend of last season felt improvised, almost accidental. Yet he outdid himself in delivering the Kitende-based club what was previously an elusive league and cup double. But just after reaching the peak of his spectacular ascent, with confetti still flying in the air, Isabirye's luck seemed to turn this past week.

While there was always speculation about his position at Kitende, the fatalistic mood that took hold and consequently forced him to contemplate his own coaching mortality told its own story. It is not every day that winning a domestic double creates a toxic atmosphere in which defeat seems inevitable, discipline breaks down, and every action adds to a sense of decay. Yet here we are.

In case you missed it, Isabirye on Wednesday jumped before Vipers' top brass could push him. The youthful coach had hours before been summoned to a disciplinary hearing after reportedly going AWOL. Isabirye, in a sensational resignation letter, would later claim that a motor accident had left him in no state to attend the aforesaid disciplinary hearing. 

It felt rather odd that someone whose ‘coach of the season’ accolade had barely gathered dust in the cabinet was not in the good graces of his erstwhile employer. Yet the cold truth is that Isabirye’s league and cup double feat seems a long way back in the rear-view mirror. The events that birthed this startling outcome should tend to responsible authorities not merely with reverence but with an unbending confidence that there is ever more work to be done.

It is a terribly bad look for Ugandan club football when a national champion and winning coach cannot restore relations to their proper channels. The breakdown in communication between Vipers' top brass and Isabirye serves as a symbol of everything that is wrong with Ugandan club football. If what this deficiency represents can be summarised to a catch-all phrase, it is: the shocking absence of a structure. It is this structure or a semblance of it that engenders professionalism. 

Clubs should be in the habit of bending every effort to create an enabling environment for their coaches. Recruiting players and members of their backroom staff without their input is hardly a professional thing to do. His flaws notwithstanding; Isabirye should be praised for pushing back against any idea that undermines the conceptualisation of professionalism. 

Vipers will keep running into strong headwinds not least on the continent if it continues to be micromanaged. A modern structure has to be set in stone, with the club's top brass setting targets they so deem fit for their employees. The Venoms cannot keep being run as if they are in the Wild West. The club will only go as far if it keeps being run on a whim.