However, there is another school of thought that is convinced Magogo should stay for continuity purposes. These are mostly people who are serving Fufa in different capacities and prefer to maintain the status quo. What I discern from this mosaic is that our game has several well-wishers but who do not seem to know which way to go to end Magogo’s eight-year leadership.
I will not delve into the Fufa polls much but it only reminded me of the departed Alhajji Akbar Adoko Nekyon, an ambitious figure that pulled the football strings in the 60s. In fact May 4, 2021 marked three years since his demise. As far as Ugandan football is concerned, few people have shaped the sport like Nekyon, who was a central figure in the formative years during the sixties.
A former Fufa boss and a top politician, Nekyon is up there among the most influential people along with departed souls such as Joseph ‘Jolly Joe’ Kiwanuka, Prince Badru Kakungulu, Henry Balamaze Lwanga, Francis Nyangweso and Jimmy Bakyayita Semugabi, among others.
Information is scanty about how Ugandan football was run before independence in 1962. What’s clear, though, is that the Uganda Football Association (UFA) was formed in 1924. In 1958, Uganda got affiliated to the world football’s governing body Fifa.
At the time, the federation was run by mainly whites, who were based at Makerere University. By then, the scoop of UFA was restricted in Kampala and surrounding areas. The few recognized Ugandans in UFA in that era included Joseph Jolly ‘Joe’ Kiwanuka and Rev Pollycap Kakooza before Henry Balamaze Lwanga and Hassan Sunderani joined the fray.
It was in 1961 when Balamaze mooted the idea of creating a broader body to run the sport as well a national league but the proposal was not supported. However, when indigenous Ugandans took full control over UFA immediately after independence, Balamaze’s proposal was returned to the floor and a committee appointed to look into the issue ; incidentally, Blamaze headed it and others were Kiwanuka and Kakooza.
The committee approached Nekyon who was a government minister at the time in a view of lobbying his colleagues in government. In 1965, when Nekyon became UFA chairman after replacing George Magezi, he asked Balamaze’s committee to traverse the country and get more views.
FUFA IS BORN
The committee finished its work in 1967 with ground-breaking recommendations such as changing the name of UFA to Fufa (Federation of Uganda Football Associations) as well as the formation of district football associations. More importantly, it recommended the creation of a national football league.
Straightaway, Balamaze’s committee drafted a new constitution, a blueprint that the federation used for more than a decade. The new Fufa had Balamaze Lwanga unanimously elected as chairman. The Fufa president was Nekyon. However, his tile was not elective.
It was mainly ceremonial and was not involved in day-to-day running of the federation. However, he had key roles such as summoning Annual General Meetings as well as presiding over the Fufa elections. Balamaze was also appointed to head the national football league committee (NFLC), which was responsible for the running of the league.
The fruits of Fufa’s new machinery swung into action, helping Uganda Cranes qualify for the 1968 Africa Cup of Nations in Ethiopia and snapped up Burkhard Pape – a German tactician for the national team.
Pape built a strong national team which won the regional title for three consecutive years (1968, 69 and 70) and a couple of local coaches under Pape were produced.
The league was also organized and clubs started participating in the Caf inter-clubs events. And another tournament, the Uganda Cup, was also formed.
Nekyon’s football administration ended in 1971 following the fall of Milton Obote’s government. So, his demise on May 24, 2018 closed the curtains of one of the most charismatic football administrators in the history of Ugandan football.
bzziwa@observer.ug
The author is The Observer operations director.
