SC Villa president Ben Immanuel Misagga announced yesterday that they will be shifting their home ground from Nakivubo stadium to Masaka recreation ground with immediate effect.
This will be Villa’s fourth home ground since Misagga became club boss in 2014, making it intriguing on what kind of effect it will have this time round. “Positive,” said the club CEO Ivan Kakembo.
“Villa’s glory days were when the club was playing in Masaka. We want to rekindle those moments, when visiting us was a daunting prospect. Hardly any team ever survived Villa in Masaka,” Kakembo said.
However, it is the closing of Nakivubo recently for re-development, that compelled this move on Villa. And because it had not been pre-planned, the move to Masaka is expected to hurt many fans here, who feel that travelling a whopping 135km will be costly.
Ibrahim Kinene, a fan from Kawempe, expressed his disquiet to that effect. But Ssebyoto Muwanga, the Villa fans coordinator, welcomed the move:
“Our ancestral home has always been Masaka where we have a huge fan following.” It is also reported that the recreation will cost Villa Shs 200,000 a month as opposed to Shs 500,000 a match at Namboole.
Kakembo said they have been receiving pleas from the Masaka community to return the club there for a while now. The Nakivubo incident was simply a catalyst to finally effect the move. “They always told us that football in Masaka lost its soul once Villa relocated to Kampala.”
That relocation was after the 1994 season, after Villa beat Express 1-0 on the final day of the season, to win the title. Such was the glory that the recreation illuminated.
Kakembo feels this is the beginning of great things. Villa’s first fixture in Masaka will come against Onduparaka next weekend.
jovi@observer.ug