Wednesday 13th June, 2018
Ivy’s Hotel Wakaliga
Maroons Head Coach Asaph Mwebaze appeared before the Commission of Inquiry into Football Officiation this morning and delivered an insightful submission on both the Azam Uganda Premier League and the Big League.
Mwebaze who was accompanied by his CEO, like other clubs, added his voilce to the outcry about dubious match officiation.
Mwebaze observed that Maroons had got only a single penalty the entire season and drawn 14 matches because biased referees denied his team scoring opportunities.
He pointed out that club chairmen were prime suspects in the vice of compromising match officials. He called for the professionalization of referees in the Premier League so they concentrate on ‘refereeing’ as a full time job.
Mwebaze suggested that referees should not be assigned games in their communities, citing a case where he found a match official marking the field in Lira and later on appeared as a referee for the same game.
He pointed out that referees succumbed to intimidation at grounds where there are “no off-side calls for the home teams’.
Mwebaze observed that a high percentage of penalties, most of which were controversial, were awarded upcountry where matches were not televised, he hailed junior and female referees for being largely impartial and their mistakes were genuine.
Earlier on, outgoing SC Villa CEO Valie Mugwanya and Head Coach Wasswa Bbosa made their submission to the commission. As expected they also decried poor officiation.
Mugwanya suggested that to clean up the game, club Chairmen and the referees leadership should be probed thoroughly.
He queried match officials’ allegiance to the past and present football political leadership.
Tomorrow Vipers SC CEO Peter Lwanga and Referees Manager Samuel Egesa will appear.
MAIN PHOTO: L-R-SC Villa’s Valley Mugwanya and Coach Wasswa Bbosa appearing before the Commission of Inquiry into football officiation at Ivy’s Hotel Wakaliga on Wednesday June 13th 2018.
