By James Robert Kayindi
After a long period on inside talks, FUFA boss Eng. Moses Magogo has finally spoken out on the ongoing talks between Uganda Super League (USLL) to bring Supersport back to sponsor Uganda’s top flight league. During a press conference held at the FA headquarters in Mengo on Wednesday, Magogo once again confirmed that FUFA signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with USLL but only upon consultation and consent with FSL clubs despite some club officials insisting they were not consulted and he swore to honour the agreement till it’s broken by the other party.
‘‘We want to honor an agreement that FUFA has signed until a time when there is a reason for not abiding by it,” Magogo said.
With reports that some club officials are in talks with another Television company (Azam TV) to air the league, the FUFA boss applauded their efforts but advised them to engage potential sponsors in the next two years.
‘‘I must commend the clubs for their attempts to get another sponsor. FUFA applauds the clubs’ efforts in a bid to get funds,” added Magogo.
The FUFA boss made it clear that besides the FSL clubs and USLL, the federation has also involved Supersport, government in talks and also consulted the international soccer governing body FIFA on the matter but he was quick to remind saboteurs that all these discussions are in the interest of football development and aimed at tapping financial and other resources for the league.
“The discussions are about tapping into resources for the league. The decisions taken by FUFA are in the interest of development of football,”said Magogo. He further added that whereas FSL clubs provide matches, USLL has the funds from Supersport as a result of their contract with the Pay Television Company which still has two years running.
With fears and rumors that FUFA intends to retain league management since it’s the one directly in talks with USLL over sponsorship, Magogo stressed that the mandate to run the league remains with the clubs but reminded them all that they must register as legal entities in order to have shares in FSL.
“FUFA has not taken away the mandate from the FSL to run the top league. We want to have all the FSL shareholders as legal entities. FSL must issue shares to shareholders so that they have the mandate to decide on legal matters of their clubs,” said Magogo.
Months ago, government through the Ministry of Education and Sports announced that the 2014/15 top flight league will be called Uganda Premier League (UPL) but Magogo said the name remains FSL as per the FUFA statutes but revealed that the body running the league will bear the name UPL, a position he says has been communicated to the concerned parties.
Meanwhile, Magogo revealed that clubs have been given the deed of adherence from Supersport to sign in the nearest possible time but was quick to remind whoever is not interested in signing it that it’s not compulsory.
“This is not a contract. The Deed of Adherence is about compliance to standards of TV production and clubs that will appear on TV will have signed it. It is not mandatory for clubs to sign but it comes with benefits for teams appearing on,” Magogo concluded.
It should be recalled that back in2011/12, Proline FC and BunamwayaSC (now Vipers SC) refused to sign the deed of adherence back then and missed out on their games being broadcast on TV. However, Proline later complied towards end of the campaign despite no changes in the deed as earlier requested by the club proprietor Mujib Kasule.