Author: Ahmed Marsha

Uganda Cranes have fallen a slot to 74th according to the lastest FIFA/Coca Cola rankings released in Zurich, the capital of Switzerland where the main head quarters of the world’s football body are found.

In Africa, Uganda is number 19, a slot where the country was still last month.

Still Best in CECFA Region:

Despite the lapse, Uganda remains the highest ranked nation in the entire CECAFA region.

Uganda neighbours to the South West, Rwanda dropped 13 places to 91st with Ethiopia moving two slots up to 99th.

Uganda’s Opponents:

Togo, Uganda’s opponents in the 2018 World Cup qualifiers are now ranked  80th despite rising 3 places up the ladder and 21st in Africa.

The Cranes opponents in the 2017 AFCON qualifiers Burkina Faso, Botswana and Comoros are ranked 71st, 121st and 186th respectively.

Africa’s Cream:

Algeria, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Tunisia and Senegal complete the top five of Africa’s continent but stand 19th, 21st, 27th, 34th and 39th respectively in the world.

World’s Best 5 Nations:

Argentina, Belgium, Germany, Colombia and Brazil are the World’s top five footballing countries.

The next ranking will be released on 6th September 2015.

MAIN PHOTO: Uganda Cranes midfielder, Farouk Miya during the AFCON 2017 Qualifier against Botswana at the Nelson Mandela National Stadium, Namboole. Botswana is ranked 121st out of the 208 FIFA member Countries.

PHOTO CREDITS: FUFA Communications Department

2015 FUFA Juniors League Final Group Game:

Thursday, 6th August 2015: Super Cubs 1-1 SC Villa Jogoo

Super Cubs has booked their berth in the play offs of the inaugural FUFA Juniors league.

In the last group game played on Thursday, Super Cubs took the lead through Henry Mubiru in the first half.

Kenneth Majara equalized for SC Villa Jogoo Academy in the game’s dying minutes.

Super Cubs needed only a draw to unseat Standard High Zana in second place.

Now the confirmed four teams for the play offs are; Synergy from Masaka, KJT, St Mary’s and Super Cubs.

The play-offs shall be played on Saturday and the finals on Sunday.

Start of Play-offs:

Saturday, 8th August 2015 – Nakivubo Stadium

2pm: Synergy vs Super Cubs

4pm: KJT vs St Mary’s Heritage

2pm: 3rd Place Play off, Final at 4pm: Sunday, 9th August 2015 – Nakivubo Stadium

MAIN PHOTO: St Mary’s Heritage team. They will play KJT in the semi final play offs.

PHOTO CREDITS: FUFA Communications Department

2015 FUFA Juniors League Final Group Game:

Thursday, 6th August 2015

Super Cubs Vs SC Villa Jogoo

At Kaala Play Ground, Mutundwe

Start of Play-offs: Saturday, 8th August 2015 – Nakivubo Stadium

2pm Synergy vs Standard High/Super Cubs

4pm KJT vs St Mary’s Heritage

2pm: 3rd Place Play off, Final at 4pm: Sunday, 9th August 2015 – Nakivubo Stadium

The first ever Federation of Uganda Football Associations (FUFA) Junior U-17 league is nearing a tense but thrilling climax this weekend.

Before the two final play off games, there is a group game yet to be played that involves hosts Super Cubs and the visiting SC Villa Jogoos.

This Murchison group game is a decider for Super Cubs to make it to the play-offs with only a draw good enough.

KJT Soccer Academy is the only assured qualified team so far in the Murchison group.

Super Cubs and Standard High share the second slot on 26 points apiece and the Mutundwe based side only needs to avoid defeat in their last game against SC Villa Jogoos to progress.

So far, the Nile group is completed with Masaka’s Synergy topping the table standings (on 33 points), followed by  St Mary’s 18 points.

The play-offs will be played on Saturday with the best two teams per group tussling it out at Nakivubo stadium.

The final will be played on Sunday, 9th August 2015 at Nakivubo Stadium.

Click and See the latest FUFA Juniors League Table Standings – FJL LATEST TABLE STANDINGS FINAL-1

Sports Medicine Workshop:

17th August 2015 – FUFA House Mengo, Kampala

Federation of Uganda Football Associations (FUFA) continues to prepare the clubs ahead of the upcoming season.

Although several management, coaching, refereeing and administrative courses have been undertaken and offered to the club personnel, the rather sensitive medical department has been wanting.

On that background, the federation has always kept a keen eye on the safety and health precautions at hand.

FUFA, through the medical committee has observed that the Azam Uganda Premier league and FUFA Big league clubs do employ club doctors and physicians who are not practicing updated medical practices.

The medical research and injury preventative methods have been progressively improved and the club medical personnel require to be updated consistently.

FUFA has therefore organized a one day payable workshop for all medical personnel with the potential to work with the Azam Uganda Premier and FUFA Big league clubs.

The Federation Chief Executive Officer (CEO) affirms;

The course shall be hosted on Monday, 17th August 2015, starting at 8:30 a.m at FUFA House in Mengo. We are expecting an affirmative response from clubs as we look forward measures of controlling vis-a-vis limiting the damage of preventative injures for the safety of players hence better performance

All clubs are therefore urged to send in names (one per club) for their medical personnel with 30,000/= (Thirty Thousand) and this should be payable by 12th August 2015 at the latest.

MAIN PHOTO: A club medic attending to an injured player during the previous season

PHOTO CREDITS: FUFA Communications Department

A strong legal system fends off pretenders and detractors. When Eng. Moses Magogo was elected FUFA President, he knew there would be legal challenges from all parts o football circles. He had barely been in office and court cases started welcoming him.

However a strong legal team headed by Counsel Alex Luganda has fended off many attempts of dragging FUFA to courts of law while others were floored with FUFA emerging victorious.

In FUFA President’s two years at the helm of Ugandan football, here are achievements in the area of Legal.

In my manifesto, I promised that FUFA will draw new and amend current Statutes, Regulations, Policies and Procedures to ensure compliance and effectiveness.

It is the obligation of FUFA to ensure that its assets are protected and contracts of FUFA with other parties are in line with the interests of the Members and the development of the game.

FUFA has had to withstand a wave of suits against itself and its officials. Various government offices have been approached by a group of people who will not let football development take place.

Before;
Many people have used the in-existent, inapplicable, weak statutes and regulations to undermine the various programmes and activities of association football. The Supremacy of the FUFA Statutes to control all forms of football was being contested in courts of law.

The co-existence of the two legal regimes of “The laws of the Republic of Uganda” and “Association Football Regulations” was not streamlined and was causing confusion.

The FUFA Assets were at risk while the future of FUFA had become uncertain to wither the storm of impending disbandment.
Our intervention and Achievements;

1) FUFA recruited a full time Legal Officer. This has expedited a number of outstanding legal challenges that have lasted years. We no longer have to committee the FUFA CEO to court cases at the expense of the other secretariat staff. Now the Legal Committee receives more finite matters to discuss than before. It has been a worthwhile decision to recruit a young and dynamic professional.

2) Considering the fact that football is dynamic, changes in and enactment of new statutes and regulations is paramount. We have since drawn or amended the following Statutes and regulations;

a) The FUFA Statutes
b) The FUFA Competitions Rules
c) The FUFA Regulations for the Status and Transfer of Players
d) The Regulations for the Intermediaries
e) Club Ownership and Registration
f) Specific Competition Rules
g) FUFA Club Licensing Regulations
h) The Referees Manual

3) The amendment of the FUFA Statutes has now clarified that FUFA is an Association that owns a company called FUFA Ltd. This clears the confusion that was being propagated that FUFA is a company owned by 3 shareholders. This was being propagated by detractors

4) We have used our reach-out programme to explain the position of FUFA to the offices of HE the President of the Republic of Uganda, Rt Honourable Prime Minister, the Ministry of Education, the NCS, the Courts of Law, the Parliament, the IGG, the Auditor General, and the Uganda Police. We have been able to position FUFA as an organisation that is law abiding and working to transform our nation using football development

5) Together with our legal committee and the FUFA lawyers, we have been able to successfully fend off a wave of 9 fresh court cases in the past 2 years and contained the debris of cases from the previous years against FUFA and its Officials. It has come at a cost in resources that would have been utilised for the development of the game but the alternative would have affected development too if FUFA lost such cases

6) We have patented and registered the following FUFA Trademarks;
The FUFA Logo
The Phrase “Uganda Cranes”
The Phrase “It is Our Game, It is Our Country”
The Name “Uganda Premier League”
The Abbreviation “FUFA”

Many others have also been also being registered and this gives FUFA the exclusive usage of the patents registered and this does not only fend off impostors but also create commercial value by sale of exclusive usage of these trademarks

7) Despite our position that a new modern law that suits the time is urgently enacted, FUFA has fulfilled and submitted to the National Council of Sports (NCS) all the requirements (save for only incorporation) to be issued with a certificate of Registration as required by the 2014 Statutory instruments drawn by the Minister of Educations and Sports. Although the implementation of the regulations is under injunction orders by Court, and inspired by the fact that many other Sports Federations that have not complied to even 50% of the Regulations have been registered, FUFA is engaging NCS to correctly interpret and apply the requirement to incorporate which incorporation causes FUFA to lose Membership to FIFA

8) There is an ongoing process to ensure that the assets of FUFA and Title Documents are properly in the control of the organisation. The office of the Inspector General of Government(IGG) advised on a number of recommendations that are being pursued for the betterment of the organisation

Tangible Results;

1) The in-house service of the Legal officer has caused the expeditious response to contracts between FUFA and its Sponsors. The staff employment contracts have been completed. The acquisition of the licenses by FUFA to operate certain functionality is also under due course and the letters received and being written by FUFA are legally scrutinised.

2) There is improved contractual relationship with the Sponsors and third parties

3) The contractual relationship and stability between intermediaries, coaches, players and Clubs will now be improved with the new regulations amongst others

4) The Government is now considering enacting a new law for Sports and considers FUFA a partner in development of the nation. There is expected improved funding

5) FUFA assets will be more secure and more commercial value asos expected from the patented FUFA trademarks

There is still a lot to be done but considering the 2-years so far, we believe this has been a great job done. The impact of the current intervention so far in the legal gymnastics is yet to be fully enjoyed yet with more initiatives and investments we shall achieve more

It is Our Game, It is Our Country

Cranes international matches

• Comoros vs Uganda Saturday 5th September, 2015  (2017 AFCON)
• Togo vs Uganda (TBA) (2018 FIFA World cup Russia)
• Uganda vs Togo Saturday 14th November, 2015 at 4pm (2018 FIFA world cup Russia)
• Burkina Faso vs Uganda, Saturday 26th March, 2016 (2017 AFCON)
• Uganda vs Burkina Tuesday 29th March, 2016 at 7pm (2017 AFCON)
• 2018 FIFA world cup Russia November designated dates (9th-17th)
• AFCON 2017 designated dates for matches in March, 2016 (22nd-29th)

The Federation of Uganda Football Associations (FUFA) has confirmed the date for the return leg second round match of the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia between Uganda Cranes and Togo in November.

In a communication sent to FIFA General Secretary Jerome Valcke indicates that the match will be played at the Mandela National stadium, Namboole on 14th November, 2015 with kick-off set for 4pm.

FUFA’s communication is in compliance to article 21 of the Regulations of the 2018 FUFA world cup Russia.

The same letter was copied to the Togolese Football Federation and CAF Competitions Department.

Togo Football Federation is yet to confirm the date for the first leg.

Uganda vs Burkina Faso  (2017 AFCON)

Meanwhile FUFA has also confirmed that the 2017 AFCON qualifier against Burkina Faso will be played under floodlights on Tuesday 29th March 2016 at the Mandela National Stadium.  Kick off time 7pm.

Burkina Faso will host Uganda Cranes on Saturday 26th March, 2016.

Uganda will play two successive away games in the 2017 AFCON campaign starting with Comoros on Saturday 5th September, 2015. Eritrean officials will handle this match.

MAIN PHOTO: Uganda Cranes are ready for Comoros next month

CECAFA KAGAME CUP 2015:

Finals: Azam (Tanzania) 2-0 Gor Mahia (Kenya)

Third Place Play-off: KCC (Uganda) 2-1 Khartoum (Sudan)

Uganda’s representatives at the 2015 CECAFA Clubs’ tournament (Kagame Cup) finished the second runner up to bag $ 10,000 prize money and the bronze medals.

The 1987 CECAFA Club winners overcame Sudanese club, Khartoum football club 2-1 in the third place play off on Sunday at the national stadium in Dar es salaam.

Michael Birungi led the way with the opening goal after 7 minutes before creative midfielder, Muzamiru Mutyaba added the second two minutes later.

Ousmaila Baba scored the consolation for the Sudanese club.

Both side finished with 10 men following red cards to Birungi and Khartoum’s Ahmed Adam for fighting.

In the finals, Gor Mahia’s 30 year old wait for silverware will continue following a 2-0 defeat at the hands of Azam F.C.

Team captain, John Bocco put the ice cream makers in the lead by the 16th minute before doubling the lead through Tche Tche’s great freekick mid second half.

Uganda Cranes’ duo of Khalid Aucho and Godfrey Walusimbi were on the losing side for Gor Mahia

Azam pocketed $30 000 as prize money with the gold medals as they recieved the glittering trophy from Raila Odinga.

Meanwhile, Gor Mahia bagged $20 000 and silver medals.

Kampala City Council Football Club returns on Monday at 2 p.m.

Outstanding Performers:

MVP – Pascal Serge Wawa (Azam)

Best Goalkeeper – Boniface Olouch (Gor Mahia)

Best Defender – Pascal Serge Wawa (Azam)

Top Scorer – Michael Olunga (Gor Mahia) – 5 Goals

MAIN PHOTO: KCC F.C Line up

PHOTO CREDITS: Eddie Ggaliwango

Uganda U-23  1-2 Egypt U-23

Aggregate Score: Egypt 6 – 1 Uganda

The Uganda Under 23 side (The Kobs) have lost 1-2 in the return leg of the Africa U-23 Championship qualifier against Egypt at the Nelson Mandela Stadium, Namboole on Saturday.

Striker Mahmoud Abdelmonem Abelmamid Soliman had a brace with Uganda’s captain Farouk Miya netting the consolation deep in second half.

Egypt U-23 team thus qualifies to the continental show piece of the U-23 youngsters that will be held in Senegal later this year.

While addressing the players in the dressing room, the FUFA President Eng. Moses Magogo urged players to remained focused.

‘Go back to your clubs and remained disciplined as we plan for the matches against Comoros and Sudan. Each one of you here has a chance to play in those two games’ said Magogo

Uganda Kobs Starting Line Up:

Salim Jamal (G.K), Ibrahim Kiyemba, Brian Ochwo, Shafik Bakaki, Richard Kasagga, Deus Bukenya, Erisa Ssekisambu, Kizito Kezironi, Farouk Miya, Fahad Hassan Muhammed, Yunus Sentamu.

Changes:

Erisa Ssekisambu Replaced by John Ssemazzi, Fahad Hassan Muhammed Replaced Brian Nkuubi, Brian Ochwo Replaced By Martin Kizza

Substitutes Not Used:

James Alitho (G.K), John Ssemazzi, Brian Nkuubi, Martin Kizza, Okiring Isiagi, Tadeo Lwanga, Alex Kitata

Egypt XI: Mossad Awad Mossad (G.K), Mohamed Adel Mohamed Gomaa, Nabil Ragab, Ramy Hisham Abdel Aziz Moustafa (C), Karim Waleed Sayed Saleh Hassan, Mahmoud Ahmed Ibrahim Hassan, Mahmood, Mahmoud Salem Aly Abdelkhader, Muhammed Mahmoud Fathi Mahmoud Mohamed, Osama Ibrahim Abddala Mouersy Abdalla, Mahmoud Hamoda

Changes:

Ramahan Sobhi Mohamed Saleh Replaced Mahmoud Salem Aly Abdelkhader, Saleh Gomaa Oda Saleh Oda Replaced Mahmoud Abdelmonem Abelmamid Soliman, Mohamed Hany Gamal Replaced Mahmoud Ahmed Ibrahim Hassan

Substitutes Not Used:

Mohamoud Hamdi Ahmed Ali Abd El Baki (G.K), , Yasser Ahmed Ibrahim El Hanafi, Hussein Ragab Abdelmohsen Ali Elkefat, Islam Mohamed Mohamed Saleh

Match Officials:

Referee: JEAN MARC GANAMANDJI CAR

Assistant Referee 1: BALEZOU FABRICE

Assistant Referee 2: CYRILLE SIBEY SARAMALET

4th Official: ETIENNE GABATO

Match Commissioner: MOHAMED OMAR ABUBAKER YUSUF (KENYA)

Uganda U-23  vs Egypt U-23

Venue: Mandela National Stadium, Namboole

Time: 4pm

Date: Saturday 1st August, 2015

Fee: Shs 20,000 Pavilion and Shs.10,000 for stands

Uganda Kobs’ head coach, Milutin Sredojevic has named the players who will take to the field on Saturday against Egypt in the return leg of the CAF U-23 Championship qualifier.

Uganda enters the Nelson Mandela National Stadium arena with a mission to score 5 goals without the opponents’ response if there is any chance of progression to the continental show piece of the U-23 youngsters that will be held in Senegal later this year.

Uganda Kobs Starting Line Up:

Salim Jamal (G.K), Ibrahim Kiyemba, Brian Ochwo, Shafik Bakaki, Richard Kasagga, Deus Bukenya, Erisa Ssekisambu, Kizito Kezironi, Farouk Miya, Fahad Hassan Muhammed, Yunus Sentamu.

Substitutes:

James Alitho (G.K), John Ssemazzi, Brian Nkuubi, Martin Kizza, Okiring Isiagi, Tadeo Lwanga, Alex Kitata

Match Officials:

Referee: JEAN MARC GANAMANDJI CAR

Assistant Referee 1: BALEZOU FABRICE

Assistant Referee 2: CYRILLE SIBEY SARAMALET

4th Official: ETIENNE GABATO

Match Commissioner: MOHAMED OMAR ABUBAKER YUSUF (KENYA)

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Photo credit: Senior Photographer John Batanudde

KCCA FC 0-1 Azam

KCCA FC failed to replicate their winning formula at the ongoing Kagame CECAFA club championship as they were ejected by home side Azam FC.

KCCA FC did all they could by creating chances but Azam goalkeeper Manula Aishi Salum was in top form as he remained firm raid after raid.

Azam won 1-0 to set up a clash for Sunday’s final with Kenyan side Gor Mahia that has two Uganda Cranes players Godfrey Walusimbi and Khalid Aucho.

Shah Farid Mussa scored the all important goal for Azam on 78 minutes.

‘We deserved to win this match.However my young players have learnt a lot from this tournament’ said KCCA FC assistant coach Sam Simbwa during the post match interview with tournament TV broadcasters Supersport.

Gor Mahia beat Sudanese side Khartoum National 3-1 in the other semifinal today in Dar es Salaam.

KCCA FC will now take on Khartoum in the third place play off match for a battle of $10,000.

 MAIN PHOTO: The KCC F.C starting XI against Azam F.C in the semi finals.

PHOTO CREDITS: Eddy Ggaliwango