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