Fufa’s misguided reforms will sink Ugandan football.
Immanuel Ben Misagga
We live in perilous football times. A group of individuals led by a convicted fraudster, who has never
injected a personal coin to develop football, came out recently to claim they researched, analysed
global football trends, and came up with a blueprint to revamp Ugandan domestic football.
This ‘blueprint’ was rolled out to the media without the involvement of the most essential
stakeholders in football – the clubs, players, and fans.
Among others, this group plans to reduce top-flight teams from 16 to 12, create a reserve league
amongst the top-flight teams and create regional leagues, among others. The ‘proposal’ which to
me is already a decision, is not premised on any scientific dipstick diagnosis of the current league
format. There is no clear justification how the 12-league team will deliver us to the Promised Land
but rather selfish interests of having a few institutional clubs cannibalise the league and make it
convenient for club licensing oversight.
Now, the same group wants to create a stakeholders’ debate on something they have already
decided. All this is done under the guise of reforming football but the underhand issue of
strengthening Fufa’s stranglehold over clubs, especially when it comes to controlling the rules and
flow of sponsorship money.
More importantly, this is a chance for the cabal governing Ugandan football to milk hoodwink Fifa
into sinking hundreds of thousands of dollars into this shady project called ‘reform.’ Domestically,
this also offers Fufa an opportunity to shed its skin and divert attention from its excesses.
I warned in these pages last week that Fufa was awaiting a huge bounty from Fifa and they acted
fast to spend about Shs 40m as Covid-19 fund in order to exclusively feast on the $600,000 [Shs
2.3bn] Fifa sent on April 24 without prying eyes.
On that background, it is true Ugandan football requires massive reforms, but those reforms need to
start with reorganization of the football administrative structure. It also requires cleaning the Fufa
executive that is devoid of any former footballers, club representation or sports law expert.
In short, it is of little use to come up with a new policy when the people who failed the old one are
unaccountable.
For instance, where is the report to show that the much-vaunted Jinja declaration expired? Where is
the expert technical assessment report to show what has worked or failed over the past five
years? What are the alternative strategies apart from reducing top-flight numbers?
Instead, Fufa has used this period of anxiety and uncertainty to create a sense of doing something.
Borrowing templates of developed football countries as a yardstick is being misguided, especially
when one factors in the social, economic, and cultural aspect. These are tried and tested approaches
that span more than a century yet here we are in Uganda, applying a trial and error approach every
few years.
At best, we should be trying out the approach employed during the golden years of Ugandan
football in the eighties and nineties and synchronise them with modern ways of doing business
before clamouring to identify with Europe.
That is when the Super Division Club Association (SDCA) independently ran the game.
Ironically, what Fufa refuses to borrow from those countries is the independence of different
stakeholders, in this case the Uganda Premier League. The English
The ideas are just imported and not tailored to Uganda
We should accept to be unique because there is no standard blueprint the world over.
None of the 16 top-flight teams has reached the business side of continent tournaments
Ours is a local problem that needs local solutions
In Africa, north African teams dominate because they have control of the broadcast media; there is
no DStv to pump them with European football but have their own that combine both to create awin-win situation. Even in South Africa, DStv has a purpose to promote their league and they ensure
time zones does not clash with top European leagues.
These counties are urbanized and can therefore have attract enough fans to fill stadiums, something
we cannot do now.
DOMESTIC REALITY
In Uganda, 80 per cent of fans live in rural areas and you cannot expect a fan to travel 130km from
Masaka for a league game.
So, if the plan is to attract football at the grassroots level, it can’t be achieved when rural teams are
deprived of representation and suffocated by a few so-called ‘rich’ institutional clubs that have
passed the deceptive club licensing programme.
Let us adapt the Brazilian league model by creating clusters basing on regions and their strengths.
This would not only reduce on costs for clubs, it would also increase fans’ passion and sense of
belonging to their clubs.
It is for this reason the Masaza Cup remains popular while the UPL numbers keep dwindling. I just
don’t understand why egos in Fufa can’t allow them to sit with Masaza organisers for tips. Reducing
teams to 12 would make it a Kampala affair and institutional clubs only. We have already seen how
Onduparaka fairytale is diminishing by the season while the likes of Tooro United are already headed
down.
The bitter fact is that aside from KCC which has built a following for more than 50 years, no
institutional club can afford to attract a sizeable number of fans to stadiums because they lack
attachment to fans. This will further dissuade potential investors in the game. Even with a monster
budget KCCA still struggles to match the numbers Villa or Express commands in terms of fan base.
REGIONAL OUTLOOK
Imagine, Uganda is the highest-ranked in the region by FIFA, yet we pale in comparison to Kenya and
Tanzania in league strength. This perhaps explains why we do not have any players in Europe’s elite
leagues.
Those are the issues Fufa needs to address first because it is clear there are gaps in marketing of the
UPL or that it is poorly managed; so, we need to first focus on promoting our own before importing
strategies that are not suited to our standards.
INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVE
World over, football is one of the few disciplines that do not have a global template for success. How
players develop in Europe is not the same with South America, yet at the end of the day they both
produce outstanding performers. Every nation or league has its unique qualities it identifies with.
In other words, what works in England may not necessarily work for Uganda. At the heart of all this
are factors such as weather patterns, talent pool, financial strength, and level of advancement.
That is why Brazil, the country that churns out the most talent, has an unorthodox league set-up that
starts in May and ends in December. On the other hand, Luxemburg, a country with the highest GDP
per capita, is a football minnow.
Besides, Serbia may have a population of just about six million people, but they maximize their
potential through selling hundreds of players across Europe.
On that background, Fufa’s recent effort to copy and paste foreign templates as the blueprint could
be doomed even before it is implemented.
Once you see Fufa helm bring anything in public, he has already made it a law, so no matter how
much water pass under the table he won't change anything, because all Fufa executive members
don't understand him and none at the dining table will ever ask why he uses a folk instead of a
spoon to serve.
The author is Nyamityobora FC president
We live in perilous football times. A group of individuals led by a convicted fraudster, who has never
injected a personal coin to develop football, came out recently to claim they researched, analysed
global football trends, and came up with a blueprint to revamp Ugandan domestic football.
This ‘blueprint’ was rolled out to the media without the involvement of the most essential
stakeholders in football – the clubs, players, and fans.
Among others, this group plans to reduce top-flight teams from 16 to 12, create a reserve league
amongst the top-flight teams and create regional leagues, among others. The ‘proposal’ which to
me is already a decision, is not premised on any scientific dipstick diagnosis of the current league
format. There is no clear justification how the 12-league team will deliver us to the Promised Land
but rather selfish interests of having a few institutional clubs cannibalise the league and make it
convenient for club licensing oversight.
Now, the same group wants to create a stakeholders’ debate on something they have already
decided. All this is done under the guise of reforming football but the underhand issue of
strengthening Fufa’s stranglehold over clubs, especially when it comes to controlling the rules and
flow of sponsorship money.
More importantly, this is a chance for the cabal governing Ugandan football to milk hoodwink Fifa
into sinking hundreds of thousands of dollars into this shady project called ‘reform.’ Domestically,
this also offers Fufa an opportunity to shed its skin and divert attention from its excesses.
I warned in these pages last week that Fufa was awaiting a huge bounty from Fifa and they acted
fast to spend about Shs 40m as Covid-19 fund in order to exclusively feast on the $600,000 [Shs
2.3bn] Fifa sent on April 24 without prying eyes.
On that background, it is true Ugandan football requires massive reforms, but those reforms need to
start with reorganization of the football administrative structure. It also requires cleaning the Fufa
executive that is devoid of any former footballers, club representation or sports law expert.
In short, it is of little use to come up with a new policy when the people who failed the old one are
unaccountable.
For instance, where is the report to show that the much-vaunted Jinja declaration expired? Where is
the expert technical assessment report to show what has worked or failed over the past five
years? What are the alternative strategies apart from reducing top-flight numbers?
Instead, Fufa has used this period of anxiety and uncertainty to create a sense of doing something.
Borrowing templates of developed football countries as a yardstick is being misguided, especially
when one factors in the social, economic, and cultural aspect. These are tried and tested approaches
that span more than a century yet here we are in Uganda, applying a trial and error approach every
few years.
At best, we should be trying out the approach employed during the golden years of Ugandan
football in the eighties and nineties and synchronise them with modern ways of doing business
before clamouring to identify with Europe.
That is when the Super Division Club Association (SDCA) independently ran the game.
Ironically, what Fufa refuses to borrow from those countries is the independence of different
stakeholders, in this case the Uganda Premier League. The English
The ideas are just imported and not tailored to Uganda
We should accept to be unique because there is no standard blueprint the world over.
None of the 16 top-flight teams has reached the business side of continent tournaments
Ours is a local problem that needs local solutions
In Africa, north African teams dominate because they have control of the broadcast media; there is
no DStv to pump them with European football but have their own that combine both to create awin-win situation. Even in South Africa, DStv has a purpose to promote their league and they ensure
time zones does not clash with top European leagues.
These counties are urbanized and can therefore have attract enough fans to fill stadiums, something
we cannot do now.
DOMESTIC REALITY
In Uganda, 80 per cent of fans live in rural areas and you cannot expect a fan to travel 130km from
Masaka for a league game.
So, if the plan is to attract football at the grassroots level, it can’t be achieved when rural teams are
deprived of representation and suffocated by a few so-called ‘rich’ institutional clubs that have
passed the deceptive club licensing programme.
Let us adapt the Brazilian league model by creating clusters basing on regions and their strengths.
This would not only reduce on costs for clubs, it would also increase fans’ passion and sense of
belonging to their clubs.
It is for this reason the Masaza Cup remains popular while the UPL numbers keep dwindling. I just
don’t understand why egos in Fufa can’t allow them to sit with Masaza organisers for tips. Reducing
teams to 12 would make it a Kampala affair and institutional clubs only. We have already seen how
Onduparaka fairytale is diminishing by the season while the likes of Tooro United are already headed
down.
The bitter fact is that aside from KCC which has built a following for more than 50 years, no
institutional club can afford to attract a sizeable number of fans to stadiums because they lack
attachment to fans. This will further dissuade potential investors in the game. Even with a monster
budget KCCA still struggles to match the numbers Villa or Express commands in terms of fan base.
REGIONAL OUTLOOK
Imagine, Uganda is the highest-ranked in the region by FIFA, yet we pale in comparison to Kenya and
Tanzania in league strength. This perhaps explains why we do not have any players in Europe’s elite
leagues.
Those are the issues Fufa needs to address first because it is clear there are gaps in marketing of the
UPL or that it is poorly managed; so, we need to first focus on promoting our own before importing
strategies that are not suited to our standards.
INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVE
World over, football is one of the few disciplines that do not have a global template for success. How
players develop in Europe is not the same with South America, yet at the end of the day they both
produce outstanding performers. Every nation or league has its unique qualities it identifies with.
In other words, what works in England may not necessarily work for Uganda. At the heart of all this
are factors such as weather patterns, talent pool, financial strength, and level of advancement.
That is why Brazil, the country that churns out the most talent, has an unorthodox league set-up that
starts in May and ends in December. On the other hand, Luxemburg, a country with the highest GDP
per capita, is a football minnow.
Besides, Serbia may have a population of just about six million people, but they maximize their
potential through selling hundreds of players across Europe.
On that background, Fufa’s recent effort to copy and paste foreign templates as the blueprint could
be doomed even before it is implemented.
Once you see Fufa helm bring anything in public, he has already made it a law, so no matter how
much water pass under the table he won't change anything, because all Fufa executive members
don't understand him and none at the dining table will ever ask why he uses a folk instead of a
spoon to serve.
The author is Nyamityobora FC president
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