FOOTBALL The FUFA TV Cup; Just how ground leveling is it?

But what is the FUF TV Cup? What purpose does it serve? and Why does FUFA feel it is a necessary addition to the school competitions in place?

The Federation of Uganda Football Association (FUFA) has recently instigated or rather discreetly launched plans to have a competition that it says will level the competition in the echelons of school football – the FUFA TV Cup.

The audacious project was brought to light after a letter introducing the competition was leaked to the media, with FUFA President Moses Magogo the signatory to the letter addressed to Mbalule Joshua Arthur, the Headmaster of Busoga College, Mwiri.

But what is the FUF TV Cup? What purpose does it serve? and Why does FUFA feel it is a necessary addition to the school competitions in place?

The FUFA TV Cup is being championed by FUFA under its brand FUFA TV which is 100% owned and run by the federation under FUFA Media.

One of the objectives of the tournament, according to Magogo, is to re-introduce the game of football in the traditional academic giants in Uganda by providing ‘a fair competitive platform for the traditional secondary schools’ with the rest of the schools.

The FUFA TV Cup so far has been presented not to replace the existing Uganda Secondary Schools Sports Association (USSSA) football competition formerly the National Post Primary games (NPP).

FUFA hopes that the Cup can help rejuvenate the spirit of the game in these traditional schools that have been left behind by the current competitions.

It is also fronted as one that will marry excellence in academics and sports, something the federation feels the current competition has been unable to do.

“From our analysis, the current secondary schools football competitions in Uganda do not provide a fair competitive platform for the traditional secondary schools,” the document said.

“We have however observed that currently there is a void of top football players from such schools yet history has it that such schools have produced top and productive citizens in academia and football in the past.”

“The current football competitions are dominated largely by privately owned secondary schools that have different objectives and more resources to "out-muscle" the traditional schools,” it adds.

The tournament slated to kick-off next year is set to accommodate eight carefully selected schools from across the country, all earmarked by FUFA.

Besides Mwiri, the other schools already invited include Kiira College Butiki and Jinja College, all based in Jinja district.

The others are Kings College Buddo, St. Marys College Kisubi (SMACK), Ntare School, Makerere College and Magogo’s former school Namilyango College.

The competition will not replace the existing USSSA games, but FUFA reckons it can have an expounded influence in the future.

To its credit, the eight selected schools are indeed known for their success in academics, but have not had the same impact in nurturing as many football players.

They have registered incredible success in developing stars for other sports like rugby with schools like Buddo, SMACK, Ntare and Namilyango churning out tremendous amount of top rugby players.

Mwiri and Kiira College have done tremendous good in supporting development of Cricket stars. So there is proven track record of sports excellence in these schools as well.

But you have to look at the respective Alumni leagues of these schools to understand that there is a folklore of talent that goes unnoticed because maybe the football culture in these schools is toppled by other sports disciplines.

Great footballers like William Nkemba, Mike Mukasa, Richard Adubango and Paul Mukatabala have all passed through these institutions.

Also, important to note that these institutions also played a crucial role in the development of football following its introduction and provided players for the first ever assembled Uganda Cranes team in 1922.

Ivan Nsubuga (Makerere College), Y. Kayobyo (King’s College Buddo) were part of the first Cranes squad that played in the first official game on May 1, 1926 against Kenya.

And it had to take someone who went to these schools to understand that they might need a little shove in the right direction to develop the football culture and ensure that the sport and the players themselves do not lose out.

Obviously, there is a glaring level of mistrust between the federation and some of its stakeholders. With the warying sect sceptical of the move ‘to steal football from the masses’, as FUFA maintains that it holds the monopoly to run football in the country.

Much of the scorn stems from the way the competition has been discreetly presented, with everything kept in a black box away from the public, with others scared of what could this new competition develop into in the long term.

Will initial success drive the motive to try and out compete the current national games? With the investment from the central government into the games, does FUFA’s discerning eye fancy it, and the cup a ploy to try and get in on the cake.

Schools’ football has been managed by USSSA, but one shudders to think how much they have been involved in the formulation of this tournament, or how much could they be involved in its management going forward.

USSSA’s interest is well represented within the structures at FUFA with its president Justus Mugisha also holding the office of FUFA’s second vice president. Meaning they may feel well represented in any of the discussions.

However, the conspiracists have also questioned where his bigger allegiance lies, or whether he could act as a vehicle to link the two organizations as part of a bigger project.

Mugisha nor USSSA has commented on the issue, as they are still deeply engaged in the ongoing NPP games in Fort Portal.

With FUFA playing its cards close to its chest, as the football republic continues to conceptualise the finer details of the tournament, its impact is still unclear.

Whether it will live up to this vision will become apparent only when the tournament finally kicks off, a year from now.