Following the impasse between the Federation of Uganda Football Association (FUFA) and the Uganda Super League Ltd (USLL) that resulted into two national leagues (FSL and USL) in the 2012/13 season, cabinet has resolved to disband the two and instead recommended the formation of the Uganda Premier League (UPL).
Reports from the cabinet meeting chaired by the second deputy Prime Minister Henry Kajura at Parliament on Wednesday passed the recommendations by the Education and Sports Ministry following its findings into the wrangles that have ruined the beautiful game since August last year.
According to local daily; The Daily Monitor, the 2013/14 season under the name Uganda Premier League kicks off in August and Jessica Alupo the Minister in charge of Education and Sports says it will be one unlike the previous season.
“No league will kick off next season if it is not one,” she told Daily Monitor yesterday.
Alupo also hopes that USL sponsors Supersport and Uganda Breweries Ltd under their Bell Lager brand will remain sponsoring the new league but insisted that clubs will be responsible for running the league and not the federation revisiting the Jinja Declaration.
“We have also resolved that clubs from FSL and USL should organize themselves according to the Jinja Declaration (which brought about USL, a semi-autonomous body to run the league in 2010) and an interim committee put up by the ministry will help them harmonise”.
“The new league will be called Uganda Premier League and once both teams in FSL and USL have harmonized, the league will be run under the USL set-up, now UPL. We also continue to talk with sponsors to ensure that they stick with us next season.”
Daily Monitor further reports that USL sponsors SuperSport and Uganda Breweries Limited (UBL) were yet to respond to the news yesterday (Wednesday) but have previously maintained the desire to stay in the game as long as clubs unanimously agreed that they were under one consensual body. SuperSport and UBL signed a five-year Shs13b broadcast deal and Shs2.2b three-year pact respectively with USL starting from the 2011/12 season.
It should be noted that the Ministry of Education and Sports under a series of meetings with the warring factions (Fufa and USL) plus clubs signed an agreement that they will agree on whatever decision the cabinet made and it remains to be seen whether both will welcome the development.
Nevertheless, FSL Chairman Abbas Kawaase questioned the development by saying that they will only accept it if FIFA says its right.
“If Fifa says that is the right thing, then we shall follow it, if they say no, we shall not.”
“Are they saying that we are going back to the dark ages?” he wondered, “We shall watch and see”, he told Daily Monitor.
On the contrary, USL chairman Kavuma Kabenge welcomed the decision and hinted that as clubs, they agreed to maintain their contract with sponsors. “We are thankful to government that this impasse has been resolved,” he said, “We agreed as clubs and we shall maintain our contract with sponsors.
As usual, Kawowo Sports will keep you posted on the development.
