One of the biggest ironies in Uganda is that we have a football federation that relies entirely on the goodwill ofthe public but is instead accountable to no one.
Many football well-wishers often ask me why I seek to enter the murky waters in order to reform Ugandan football. To them, the risk is too much due to the intrigue and mudslinging associated with the sport but I keep telling them someone must sacrifice for others to benefit. The reason many astute administrators and sponsors shy away from football is a result of the impunity with which the powers that be use to scare off respectable people.
What many disregard is that football is a public good and Fufa is just a trustee of thepublic. Forget the fallacy of being only accountable to Fifa; Fufa is subject to Ugandan jurisdictions.
It is accountable to Ugandans. But recent years of mismanagement have eroded that notion to the extent that the Fufa administration is its own accountant, auditor and reports to an already compromised and mute assembly.
What’s even more baffling is that Fufa de!egates are the most timid when it comes to asking or querying Fufa’s accountability and as a result, many have become stooges of the Fufa executive.
For instance, have you ever stopped for a minute to ask how Fufa’s annual Shs 35 billion is spent? For a federation that bas no stadium or countrywide branches and who puts in zero shillings in the top-flight, where does this disappear every year.
And that’s not to mention the unreported monies from Fifa and some sponsors. These are some of the things I want to change in future.
Fufa needs to understand that the Fufa secretariat is not an entity in itself but rather a central place to coordinate football activities in the whole country. What we see is Fufa as business centre controlling Shs 35bn but not able to expand football agenda beyond their offices. Thatexplains why the Fufa Big League, District’ Football Associations (DFAs) and other football constituencies only exist on paper and during election period. They are only manipulated with trips and brown envelopes but there are no balls, nets, cones or even technical support extended to these grassroots.
Fufa has succeeded to cover this up with the national team success or the lack of it. This is like serving guests with best meals when the children at home are sleeping on empty stomachs.
Fufa president Moses Magogo is not developing grassroots football but instead he is building Fufa extension-buildings to justify hidden expenditures.
Fifa and Caf regularly send balls but they end up on Kampala streets instead of giving them to DFAs.
Recently a Fufa delegate confided in me that they have only received six balls out of the 20 clubs to be given, meaning at the rest end up on Kampala streets.No wonder a host delegate in Kabale at the last assembly embarrassed the fufa president when he said that he had never seen a single ball, yet the president had just reported 3000 balls distributed across the country.
Meanwhile, Caf gave FUFA $256,000 for Afcon preparations on top of government’s Shs 4.5 billion.
Almost Shs 6bn has been tagged on the cranes Afcon preparations, why would Fufa take the team to Abu Dhabi instead of Ethiopia which is 10 times cheaper and with direct flights to Egypt.
At the end of the day, The Cranes will return home with the same old excuse of ‘We are building’ yet in reality we are in decline. The present cranes has got to reach the last 16 of AFCON at the finals that’s when we can compare the past performance with what Magogo wants to show as progress.