Overview:
First, Hassan Mubiru had scored a brilliant team goal in the last minutes of the first half at Kadiba against his childhood club but assistant referee Immaculate Ongiera had his flag off.
SC Villa’s title charge could literally be over despite nine match rounds remaining to play in the 2025/26 StarTimes Uganda Premier League.
The Jogoos, were amongst favourites for the title at the start of the season but a couple of weeks ago, their pursuit of a record extending 18th title suffered a huge setback.
Sadly, it was through decisions beyond their control but the match officiating.
At the moment, Zeljko Kovacevic’s men trail leaders Vipers by nine points.
Mathematically, it is still possible for Villa to mount a challenge but it is now entirely out of their hands with Vipers, Kitara and KCCA all above them in rankings.
The Blues will look to points dropped in the draw (0-0) and defeat (1-0) to Express and Police respectively as defining moments.
In both matches, Villa had a legit goal wrongly disallowed by an incompetent flag by the assistant referee.
First, Hassan Mubiru had scored a brilliant team goal in the last minutes of the first half at Kadiba against his childhood club but assistant referee Immaculate Ongiera had his flag off.
Had the goal stood, maybe Villa would have taken three points as the Red Eagles held on for a point.
A few days later, Emmanuel Okudra did the same error when he raised his flag to disallow Frank Ssebuufu’s would be equaliser against Police in Kamwokya with the game ending in defeat for Villa.
Imagine both goals were allowed to stand, maybe Villa would have collected four points from the fixtures and would be on 55 points and just four points behind Vipers who they will host before the season ends.
And who knows, with an early equaliser at the Kiira Road Police Arena, maybe Villa would even go on to snatch the win.
Fufa through their Referees Disciplinary Panel have handed both match officials a three-month ban, a decision highly saluted amongst the Villa faithful but what about the lost points? Gone.
They can also look to a draw at Vipers as another game they would have won had the assistant referee been in a good position to see Usama Arafat in an offside position before he equalised for the champions in that 1-1 draw at Kitende.
In the past, Villa have lost points in the boardroom that literally cost them a title and from the look of things, these two decisions literally ended their league season and come May, they will surely rue these refereeing decisions.