Dear Mr Moses Magogo
AN OPEN LETTER TO THE PRESIDENT OF FUFA
I write this letter with one simple request: that you resign from the leadership of FUFA.
I am, of course, aware that you were elected President of FUFA a few years ago unopposed due to the manipulation of the FUFA constitution. And I know that your term of office has not expired and that it's the general Assembly that has the mandate to remove you from office and it appears the Assembly is not about to call for you to step aside for the good of the federation of Uganda football Association and the football loving people of the republic of Uganda. I believe you know that I am taking an extraordinary step. Please understand that this is something that has been carefully considered, in asking for your resignation.
Ugandan football is at crossroads, the rampant corruption, the mismanagement of the federation funds, and lack of accountability, biasness in administering the game on and off the field. What happened in Ntungamo was just the tip of the iceberg. This has been brewing throughout the season and it was bound to happen. What is sad is you have kept a deaf ear throughout the season. Listening to you on radio one, one would think you have been at FUFA for just 22 months. From the start of the season, your decisions have been questionable, and this was in favor of villa. Take for example, at the start of the season, Villa played over five games in a row at home that was a great advantage to villa. To add insult to injury, villa was awarded over 10points in the board room and you wonder why people believe you have been bribed by Missaga (Villa club President).
Since you were elected president of FUFA, the Brand FUFA has continued to go down only being referred to as a Federation of the CORRUPT. Why can't you listen to others? The referee of the day has been involved in controversial games throughout the season and you pick him to officiate the biggest game of the Uganda footballing calendar? Is he the best referee in Uganda? What was the reason for making CAF referees his assistants, and a FIFA referee a fourth official? Why did you make it know to everyone at the eve of the game that it was Brian Nsubuga who was going to officiate the match when you had actually decided it was Donney going to officiate? By the way, under what rules are you calling for a reply? Your reason is the security was poor? Are you kidding? Kyamate had the best security, the police behaved well; it handled the situation very well. Actually if it had been the trigger happy Kampala police, we would have seen a lot of injuries. Who has to plan for the security at the games? How many times have you been told to beef up security at games? Remember the Express Villa game? How come that was not replayed because of security? Who gave you the authority to decide which game is replayed and which is not? How can such a decision be taken even before the referee's report? You are running the federation like it is Magogo and family business.
Let us leave the Saturday incidence alone, since you took over you have deliberately refused to provide financials with the claim that you can only provide that to the delegates. May I remind you that you run that organization in trust? We the football loving Ugandans have a stake in that organization. You even without shame told us to forget about the African cup of nations 2017? That is arrogance of the highest order? This shows you are not up to running the federation. You forgetting you were part of the old regime? Remember you were head of completions where you mismanaged competitions. Remember when both Mbale heroes and Express where candidates for relegation? What happened is you made sure heroes play all its games before express, so express could know what it required to survive relegation. Then the Proline/ Bazzer game, remember it?
You have taken advantage of the fact that Ugandans love the game and continued to over price games. Take the game in Ntungamo, the idea of taking the game to Ntungamo was to spread the game to the locals, but putting the game at 10,000/= was indirectly eliminating the locals. If you were observant you would have noticed that 90% of those who attended the game came from Kampala, does that make sense? You want people to come to games when you are providing predetermined results? And you expect fans to turn up? Next Saturday's game is already overpriced, I know those are the moments when you have to go for a kill, but remember these are the same people you want to watch local football.
What is clear, at the very least, is that as President of the federation, you must have the means and the inclination to promote and defend football, and uphold its wellbeing. I have reason to believe that, notwithstanding the silence of the Executive and the delegates, you have demonstrated that you no longer qualify for the high office of FUFA president.
As Federation President you should take responsibility for the sad state in which our beloved game finds itself. This prevailing toxic and amoral environment must surely have something to do with the manner in which you assumed office. You manipulated the constitution which left you as a sole candidate. There was no completion and capable people where locked out on technicalities of not having been in football management for more than seven years.
As Football loving Ugandans we expect our leaders to work hard for the betterment of the game. Truthfully you have hardly shown that. You have not even lead by example, as a person of common wisdom, and understand the environment that you operate .I know you are well educated, but that is not enough to lead our game. Under your leadership we have seen no accountability at the federation with a lot of your members mismanaging funds without a finger raised by you or your committee members.
Besides the social and moral breakdown that engulfs our game, the football grounds have been sold off, match fixing in both lower games and top league, and are not abating. All these have widened since you took over. All these are issues that as a leader of our game you should be tackling. However, you have remained silent only choosing to over price games which are a great failures on your part as the leader of our game.
What happened in Ntungamo shows how so angry football fan are. It wasn't only the KCCA fans but all football loving Ugandans, and I do understand their feeling as their have every reason to be so. There is evidence that you and your executive has no intelligence, ideas or initiative to take bold, radical and necessary steps to rescue the game in our country. Uganda has talent, but it needs nurturing. An example is when we had confusion in the league (two leagues) but when we came up against Tanzania which had a fully functioning league; it was not much for the Cranes. We need new blood in the administration of our game, people who can think outside the box. We have to return to the time when we last went to a major tournament, what did we do right then? How can we improve on that and this will lead to the betterment of our game. 2017 football campaign starts this weekend, what are your preparations for this battle? Judging by your performance since you took over; I know you have no preparations. Is the team in training? Who are the players the coach has called up? We say this is a very weak group and that its automatic we will go through, but without preparations, we are going to fail again. I had boss who says hope cannot cook rice. In this case, hope without preparations will not lead us back to the AFCON.
I know you have those that still think you are the best person to lead our game, my advice to them is choose what you love most, is it Ugandan Football or Mr. Magogo? I like you as a person, I believe you are a humble human being but there is a lot at stake for our game for me to just watch. If Mr Blatter threw in the towel what about you?
Please spare us another embarrassment in 2017. Spare yourself any further embarrassment of ineffectual leadership. You will be judged harshly by future generations. I ask you to resign for the good of our game and the country at large.
For God and my Country
Yours sincerely
Laman Napio Masaba, Football Fan
