Less than a fortnight ago, he said the “Uganda Premier League (UPL) has never been in good hands like it is now. Gone are the days of fistfights between us [UPL] and Fufa for sponsorship deals, poor officiating, stadium riots, etc.”
Just two days later, Kasingye, also the chairman of Police FC, ridiculed Fufa and UPL as bogus institutions littered with fraud. His change of stance arose from the controversial decision to wrongly send off Police FC goalkeeper during a game against Vipers.
Police lost three valuable points and that could later decide the destination of the league championship My biggest surprise in all this is that it has taken this long for Kasingye to realise there is no fairness in Ugandan football.
He has always stayed mute when football injustices, especially against football investors, have been happening; so, to wake up when his side is on the wrong side smacks of hypocrisy.
He has looked away whenever fellow chairmen raised pertinent issues related to unfair commercial dealings, inept leadership of the board led by his “mentee” Arinaitwe Rugyendo, virtual representation by the VP in charge of clubs and very recently when clubs wrote to the Minister seeking financial support during Covid-19 lockdown.
It remains a mystery why the senior football administrator only reacts against the authorities when his club Police is affected by bad decisions and he is disinterested when matters of a common cause are discussed in the boardroom.
Many people who have invested money in Ugandan football of recent will tell you how one needs to have a special budget for Fufa and match officials. Ugandan football operates like the famous purported quote attributed to Joseph Stalin that says: “It’s not the people who vote that decide anything; it’s the people who count the votes.”
In other words, winning trophies, gaining promotion or avoiding relegation in Uganda are not dependent on how good a team plays; but on how it is liked by Fufa, match officials and fixture organisers. Add match-fixers on the lot.
UPL POWER WITHOUT POWER
Just imagine, the UPL clubs, through their StarTimes sponsorship deal, pay the referees. However, they have no control over them. However, to blame the match officials for incompetence and unprofessionalism is simply addressing a symptom and neglecting the disease.
From the little I have established, the trio of match officials for the Vipers-Police game travelled all the way from Gulu for the match and going by the Covid-19 late travel restrictions, spent the night in Kampala before travelling back the following day. For a fact, Fufa pays each of them a paltry Shs 150,000 per match but a big fraction of it is spent on their travel, feeding and accommodation. S
o, to expect the match official to be impartial is foolhardy when one – or even both sides – can bribe him to fix a match. After all, incompetent match officials have a role model in Moses Magogo, the Fufa president who was convicted of fraud.
You cannot expect referees to be professional when they are led by a certified football thief. It should also be noted that the head of Referees Ronnie Kalema is an executive committee member.
You wonder how he resolves a conflict between politics and referee-ing as a technical service to the game. In fact, it is now an open secret in football administration circles that the one crime you can’t be convicted of is fraud because Magogo set the precedence.
It is for this reason that almost three years on, the Dan Kidega-led Fufa match-fixing report hasn’t and will never be released because the very people who commissioned the probe are the same persons implicated in football fraud.
DOUBLE STANDARDS
Kasingye’s outburst was not in vain because Fufa rushed to rescind the red card given to the Police Fc goalkeeper. On the other hand, Fufa would ordinarily reprimand Kasingye for the unsportsmanlike behaviour but what he got days later was a slap on the wrist from Magogo.
Whereas I found it laughable that a convicted fraudster advised Kasingye to learn to restrain himself in tense moments, letting the police officer off the hook sets a dangerous precedent. Just a few days ago, Fufa fined football investor Suleiman Kiwanuka, the owner of Spartans FC, Shs 1m in less than 24 hours after he criticized the federation for incompetence.
Lastly, I also challenge Kasingye to use his position and investigate the rampant fraud in domestic football. Complaining about it and threatening not to watch any more games is not enough.
The author is Nyamityobora FC president