Forget the 2003 season that left a bitter taste in the mouths of Ugandan soccer lovers as a result of alleged match fixing and poor refereeing that brought the term “Arrow boys”, the 2012/13 season will go in history as the worst Ugandan football has witnessed.
It all started in September when Fufa withdrew the mandate from the Uganda Super League Ltd (USL) to form another league Fufa Super League (FSL).
Many in the soccer circles predicted a re-union of the two leagues or one pulling out for the other as soon as possible as same clubs were playing in both leagues but nothing has changed to date.
Failure to reach a compromise by both factions (Fufa and USL) prompted the government to come in before the end of last year and the soccer fraternity got relief when the Minister of Education and Sports Hon: Jessica Alupo met the two sides and advised them to ensure that by January 31st, they should be having one league.
Nevertheless, both leagues continued running amidst meetings chaired by the Education ministry Permanent Secretary Paul Lubanga who was directed by the minister to do so on behalf of the ministry.
The parties that were part of the numerous meetings included Fufa, USL, Fifa and USL sponsors (Bell and Supersport). The latest meeting involved the USL clubs that were part of last season.
Failure to reach a compromise, many pundits expected the minister to make a ruling on which league should run but wapi? She instead extended the deadline to June citing that the two leagues can go on till the end of the season.
To many, such a decision was the perfect solution to the fracas since clubs have already incurred costs in participating in both or either of the leagues and thus never wanted to them to re-incur the costs in the same season (read repeated costs).
However, it leaves a lot of un answered questions such as determining the overall champion and the like.
In my opinion, Alupo’s diversion from the January 31st deadline till the end of the season with both leagues running unhindered is betray to the beautiful game that is football.
What is your say?