FUFA has continued to strengthen football development across the country through the distribution of 545 Zakayo balls to clubs in the FUFA Regional Leagues. The handover ceremony took place today at FUFA House in Mengo and was presided over by FUFA’s 2nd Vice President, Dr Azah Taibu.
A total of eight General Secretaries representing the regional football associations received the balls on behalf of 109 clubs participating in the FUFA Regional Leagues. Each club will receive five Zakayo balls to facilitate matchday and training activities.
Mafuko Rauf from Eastern Region, Turyomuriwe Samuel from Kitara Region, Ssejjemba Brian from Buganda Region, Ekaju Daniel from North East Region, Alal Eron from Northern Region, Nalwanga Berthlyne from Western Region,
Keuber Moses from the West Nile Region and Frank Kakuddu from the Kampala Region attended the ceremony.
Speaking during the ceremony, Dr Taibu explained that the initiative forms part of FUFA’s broader technical master plan aimed at supporting football development at all levels.
‘Today, we’ve had an activity here, which is part of our broader technical master plan, and it’s about distribution of equipment,’ said Dr Taibu. ‘As you will recall, we recently distributed a number of equipment to the Super League clubs, and this is a follow-up to support the regions as well. The FUFA Executive Committee made a decision to support regional football clubs with balls, and today, we have seen the Zakayo balls being distributed to a total of 109 clubs across the country. Each club will receive five balls, and this reflects our commitment as a federation to support the lower-level leaders, to make sure that they play good football, grow the game, and we grow the game together as a country.’
The Regional General Secretaries expressed gratitude to FUFA for the continued support.
The Buganda Regional CEO Brian Ssejjemba said, ‘Today, FUFA has given us five balls for each third division club. Speaking for Buganda region, we are thankful to the FUFA leadership for equipping us with match balls towards the third division men’s league. This will help our clubs successfully execute matchday activities and improve the quality of the league since the teams will now have good equipment.’
The Northern Region General Secretary Alal Eron also appreciated the support, noting its contribution towards upholding the integrity of competitions. ‘First of all, I thank FUFA for its commitment to ensuring consistency across all competitions. When you look at Rule 23 of the FUFA Competition Rules, it talks about the specification of the ball to be used at FUFA authorised competitions. This is a right step towards maintaining the integrity of competitions across regions. Most clubs have poor quality balls or very few, and this is a good supplement to what they have,’ he stated.
From the North East region, the General Secretary Ekaju Daniel said, ‘We have 16 clubs, and this is a big boost for us. We thank the FUFA President and the Executive Committee for actualising this plan. You cannot talk about football without footballs, and now that we have them, we are ready to play and promote the game even more.’
This initiative, approved by the FUFA Executive Committee, builds on earlier support extended to all 16 Uganda Premier League clubs, 16 FUFA Big League clubs, and 12 FUFA Women Super League clubs. In total, FUFA’s recent distribution of Zakayo balls across these competitions is valued at nearly UGX 200 million.
Through such initiatives, FUFA continues to reaffirm its commitment to football development by equipping clubs with quality resources to enhance the standard of play and sustainability of competitions at all levels.
