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FUFA President Eng. Moses Magogo strongly condemns acts of violence by some Ex-internationals

The Federation of Uganda Football Associations (FUFA) President Eng. Moses Magogo has categorically  condemned the acts of violence executed towards the FUFA House on Monday by some of the Ex-players.

The Ex-players vandalized the glass door of the main entrance leading to most offices at FUFA House in Mengo, Kampala as they attempted to forcefully ambush the Federation Headquarters.

FUF President Eng. Moses Magogo’s full speech at the weekly Press Conference at FUFA House on Wednesday;

I am here to address the media concerning the unfortunate incident that happened on Monday when FUFA house was attacked by some of the Ex-international football players.

FUFA, you must appreciate that it is composed by 33 Member Associations who are not individuals but groups.

Of the 33 members, we have 16 clubs in the Azam Uganda Premier League, 8 FUFA Regions, 7 special interest groups, the FUFA Big league and the FUFA Women Elite League.

Some times that point gets lost when people look at me, Edgar or Hussein as FUFA.

We are managed by a Constitution and the elections are organized every after four years by the Supreme body called the General Assembly where these members send their Delegates and this is the supreme body which takes decisions on behalf of the members.

The Executive Committee implements these decisions through the Secretariat headed by the CEO and that is FUFA.

Football worldwide brings together the people who are active in the game and any game of  football to happen you need players to play, referees to officiate, coaches, administrators  and sometimes Doctors.

That’s how the game of football happens , without them football can’t happen.

Therefore, to create a product called football, all these people must go to the kitchen to cook and come out.

Football worldwide has been to organised to be a combination of active persons in the game of football.

FUFA President, Eng. Moses Magogo
FUFA President Eng. Moses Magogo at the weekly Press Conference in Mengo on Wednesday

If you look at the 33 members which are open for anyone to join are strictly active in the game of football. If any of these members
become inactive, automatically they lose their membership with FUFA. The association to come to FUFA is about being active
and bring something to the table.

The game has also moved on and the number of things has come up that people must come to terms with. Many people have contributed to the game of football since 1924 as players, referees and officials and have invested personal resources into creating this product.

Therefore if they are talking about the past we must include very body who has contributed to the development of football.

It was an unfortunate incident that happened when some of the former football players took it upon themselves to unlawfully invade the premises of the Federation.

FUFA condemns the incident and we believe it is not required in modern times.

There are a number of people and some of the issues we have heard and I thought this was very important to bring to the attention of the country that the game has moved on to use professionals in terms of executions and the politicians do the decisions and the staff does the implementation.

Having played football only gives you as an added advantage.

Today, we have Mr Samuel Egesa as the FUFA Referees’ Manager but he is a manager because of his other skills that he had acquired in that office and being a referee is an added advantage.

It is also important to bring to the attention of the public that as the Federation we have had a policy to try as much as possible to absorb former players and now we have over 15  former players within the management of the game of football.

We have Edgar Watson, the CEO is a former player and captain of the National team and composition plays a key role in the game of football.

Humphrey Mandu-the Deputy CEO former Posta FC  and National U-23 player, Asumani Lubowa the FUFA Technical Director , Jackson Nyiima the FUFA Education Officer, Patrick Ntege – the National Teams’ Officer, Hadija Namuyanja, Coaches Moses Basena, Fred Kajoba, Kefa Kisala, Majidah Nantanda at the National team level

The FUFA Technical Committee has David Lumansi, Livingstone Kyambadde and Paul Ssali all who are former players.

We cannot have a collection of only former players because certain functions are technical and need technocrats with skills and expertise.

At the level of Executive we have a number of former players including the President while some have contributed constantly like Justus Mugisha the 1st FUFA VP who owns Standard High School, Zana which has generated players to the National team like Hassan Wasswa, Vincent Kayizzi, Patrick Ochan, Brian Majwega, Mike Mutyaba have all gone through that School.

The 2nd VP Darius Mugoye and some Executive Committee members have used personal money to support football at the grassroots level.

These people are contributing to the game of football using their own money and the game needs the money. We cannot have the product without such people.

Many other people inject their own money into clubs playing football at various levels.

We need everybody in the game of football and everybody is as important to the product and we should condemn the act that some people feel they are more important that others yet the product can not move on e without the others contribution .

A Mercedes Benz with the best engine cannot move to Jinja without wipers on a rainy day.

This country is managed under laws and therefore we expect everybody who is thinking that he has been disadvantaged and some of the names mentioned in this have not been banned from football Their actions qualifies them to be banned from football.

Everybody is free to join any association and make contribution to the game of football like Coaches, players and Referees’ Associations.

No one can enter FUFA as an individual and I am sure no association closes out anyone.

Therefore I would like these people to join their associations so that they can contribute to the game of football. The game picks up any who has made a contribution.

All of us did not start as Presidents. We started by contributing as players, administrators and finally found our way.

We shall not stop hiring professionals to develop the game of football.

It is very unfortunate that some of the names into these actions on Monday were great players who earned a lot of money when they were playing and never invested properly.

In life, anyone who fails to invest while still working, the day you stop working you will not go back to where you were working to look after you.

When you are making money invest for tomorrow when not making money.

People played for the national team but there were also levels above the national team that they would have become professionals and the biggest players in the world.

We can only use this incidence as educational material because we collected photos and videos that we shall use while teaching players and young ones not to act like the individuals who attacked FUFA House on Monday.

Look at the situation where the all of Africa is celebrating Ugandan football and asking what we have done to reach that level.

The State has started recognizing football and the NRM government has been here since 1986. Why is it right now it’s recognizing football.

We believe as football we have done certain things to call the attention and thus has been the sweat of the coaches, administrators and players across the whole country.

Football is also putting our country on the world map because international news agencies like BBC, Aljazeera, CNN  are talking about Uganda after qualifying for AFCON 2017 finals in Gabon and superb performance in the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia Qualifiers.

On Saturday we won our game against Congo Brazzaville and the whole world is still watching and then on Monday some individuals come and break glass door which costs some dollars 1000 dollars or less but the dent that it gives our country internationally is non-quantifiable.

The amount of energy given in by the players and coaches and everybody else is being brought down by in a single barbaric act with no popular deal but simply because some one says ‘I as a person I have not been looked after yet I played football’.

Right now football in Uganda is at its best ever it has been in-terms of organisation, systems, plans, programmes ,women football, Youth football, life come-back to the league and the performance of the National team.

A combination of all these things happening is not by accident but because we have invested time and attention. Therefore when one comes out and says football is in a mess because “I as an individual I haven’t been catered for yet I played football” is not serious.

This is unfortunate and unfair to a group of people who contribute to the game of football through their work and sweat.

I would like to assure the public that as a Federation we know where we are coming from and going and we shall not allow these acts to continue.

We shall pursue these individuals using the laws of this country because vandalism, tresspass, assault and destruction of our image which has cost us a lot of time and money to repair cannot be accepted.

We have ignored this group and people for a long time in the interest of brotherhood because they played football.

However actions that take us backwards, we have ignored but as we speak we shall take on these people legally. Let the law take its course.

We told them that the day they will have an effect on the Federation, we would take them on and definitely this is the moment .We will take on these people according to the laws of the country.

It is Our Game, It is Our Country.

 

 

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