The past years have come with so many negatives for football – ranging from 20+ scorelines to running of two leagues, cranes failure to qualify for continental showpieces to ugly administrative wrangles – that all positives have been wiped out.
I thought 2015 would be a huge year for Ugandan football – not because the FUFA boss launched the 2019 plan or the birth of the first ever women’s league – but normalcy was being restored in the men’s top tier league or at least so it seemed.
The 2014-15 season had kicked off and running pretty smoothly – obviously not to the content of every football head – but by our standards.
The engineer of the ban of Julius Kavuma Kabenge and the kick out of USLL, Moses Magogo had forged a way to bring Kabenge and USLL back on board and the MoU was signed last April. He is an engineer after all! He knows how to go about anything and everything…
Kabenge coming back into the league football picture almost meant SuperSport would be in to broadcast matches because they had a running contract with USLL. Subsequent negotiations went on and apparently deeds of adherence were signed to have SuperSport televise matches.
Then in came Tanzanian TV giant, Azam. As the two media titans stalked the possible gilterring prize, it was always going to head one way – a real battle. The run up to the local league broadcasting rights was an equivalent of a transfer silly season. Today it would be SuperSport and the next day Azam.
While with all this it seemed like SuperSport broadcast deal was nothing but done, Azam stuck in there and ‘over-matched’ their competitors offer. After months of negotiations, Azam TV struck a deal with the federation that got the the broadcasting and naming rights of the league with effect from the second round that kicks off on February 17.
The deal was unveiled to the press at Serena on February 2 and Magogo said he terminated all ties with USLL with effect from that day and termed it a ‘bold’ step (forward?) in Uganda’s football.
It only took SuperSport a couple of hours to respond to the unveiling of Azam in a media statement. One thing they didn’t shy away from is the double standards of some individuals (in the federation).
“It would be unfortunate if Ugandan sports in general suffers being it is unable to showcase its abundant talent on the global stage because of the short-sighted mind-set of a few individuals who have failed to appreciate and respect the value of long term broadcast and sponsorship agreements,” read part of the statement.
While responding to the same deal, USLL boss Kabenge accused the FUFA president double standards and that he has no right to sign on a deal on the behalf of the clubs but said football doesn’t need courts (of law) any more but expected a win-win solution when the (Sports) Minister intervenes.
In his intervention, Charles Bakabulindi, the State Minister for Sports asked FUFA to terminate the contract entered into with Azam TV and stick with the MoU they entered into with USLL.
So, will the federation bend to the directive of the minister? What happens if they do or don’t put the directive into effect?
One thing for sure is the dust is far from settled. The day of reckoning that sanity is going to be restored in Ugandan League football is far from near because the existing questions don’t have definite answers.
The dust devil we are seeing could turn into a real whirlwind!
