Immanuel Ben Misagga

Last week was a strange moment in Ugandan football. The sight of Moses Magogo, the Fufa boss, smiling broadly after picking his NRM nomination papers to run for parliament startled me. For months, Magogo has been edgy about his desire to join politics and for a moment, I thought it was a ploy to see who among his inner circle is eyeing his Fufa seat.  I know this for a fact because I worked closely with him on a number of ventures. He likes reverse psychology. If Magogo needs your loyalty, he first gets someone or a group of people to malign you so that you run to him for help so that he emerges as your saviour.  Aside from the football intrigue, I look at Magogo’s venture into politics as a blessing for the game. I say again from my experience of dealing with him. Magogo is a master at lobbying. He will kneel down without being prompted if it means to get your attention. So, with those excellent lobbying skills, I am in no doubt Magogo can become a voice for sports, and in particular

Immanuel Ben Misagga I belong to numerous football WhatsApp forums, including that of club owners, administrators, sponsors and also players. What I find compelling is that in all these groups, there is a limitation on freedom of speech on football matters. This is more so when I question the level of leadership. Oftentimes, members resort to sending me private messages for fear they are spies in the group. I always wonder; how did we get sink to this abyss? For instance, players that participate in the Cranes Na Mutima regional campaigns have not been paid a coin but always plead with me not to mention their names lest they miss out on being summoned again to the national team. Even some club leaders, who urgently need to clean their house, prefer to show their discontent through private messages.  As for some sponsors, they privately share grievances of Fufa’s corruption and arm-twisting tactics but instead ask me to spare their name in order maintain harmony!  The list of Fufa crime

Immanuel Ben Misagga Shortly after last week’s meeting between Fufa and Uganda Premier League (UPL) clubs, two club owners who participated in the meeting told me how the two sides had ceased fire.  They even talked about how calm and respectful Moses Magogo was throughout, far from his arrogant posture of defiance while fending off calls for resignation after serving a one-month conviction for fraud. I laughed out very hard because I knew these club owners don’t understand Magogo and his crafty machinations. The Magogo I know can give you Shs 1m and use Shs 10m to fight you. So, I assured them that the vindictive nature of Magogo knows no boundaries and he had set up a booby trap for the ‘ringleaders.’ Less than 24 hours later, a dossier circulated on social media accusing Diana Nyago, the Busoga United boss, of all sorts of wrongs with the club. Shortly after, another letter emerged that the Busoga kingdom had withdrawn its name from the club. What a coincidence that all this happene

Immanuel Ben Misagga It is a foregone conclusion that clubs in the topflight of Uganda football will never be united until institutional clubs agree to a shared responsibility when the going gets tough in times of injustice. Over the last decade, clubs such as KCCA, Police FC and URA FC have always shunned any efforts to rally behind other clubs.  Those clubs that attended the meeting are chaired by unprincipled, conflicted and are mere budget managers that can afford to front personal interests over institutional interests of the league.  Inside their heart of hearts they support the cause of other clubs but are unable to pronounce themselves because of selfish interests In that regard, it came as no surprise last week when leaders of the aforementioned clubs tried to woo other Uganda Premier League clubs to join a meeting with a panicky Fufa, under pressure to be ethical. The real shocker was having SC Villa and Vipers there as the rest of UPL clubs boycotted this sham meeting purpor

Immanuel Ben Misagga You only need to have followed Ugandan football in the past few months to understand that club football is in the shackles of Fufa. Fufa controls the sponsorship, registration, management and administration of all Uganda Premier League (UPL) clubs. On top of that, Fufa holds veto powers over any decision made by clubs. I don’t think there is any country in the world where such an arrangement that I equate to slavery exists. But in Uganda, everything is possible. Yet in spite of this glaring fact, the 16 UPL teams constitute 50 per cent of the Fufa 32-member body.  Last week, the majority UPL club owners declared they had had enough of Fufa’s overbearing contro and manipulation. They sought to seek a higher office to release them from the shackles.  I am greatly impressed that Bernard Atiku and Mwine Mpaka, the chairmen of Onduparaka FC and Mbarara City FC respectively, woke up and led nine other teams to challenge Fufa’s slave tendencies by petitioning the minister

IMMANUEL BEN MISAGGA The date May 25 should be enshrined in Ugandan football history for two major contrasts.  That morning, as the top Fufa leadership met in Mengo to share its weekly sitting allowances [loot] from Fifa’s $500,000 Covid-19 emergency fund and also forge a way to handle the backlash from the abrupt stoppage of the 2019/2020 football season, Jimmy Kirunda, the greatest leader in Ugandan football history, was walking the streets of Bwaise when he collapsed and died. What makes the two events intertwined is the fact that on one hand, Kirunda dedicated his entire life to the success of Ugandan football but when Moses Magogo, the discredited, took over the Fufa leadership in 2013, he immediately sacked him from the role of adviser. Magogo instead preferred to assemble a team of people who have never sacrificed anything tangible in Ugandan football. That was the start of the end of Kirunda, who had to endure the last days of his life physically, mentally, and financially hand