The Inaugural FUFA Tv Cup tournament is one game away from it’s climax as the highly anticipated finale between St Mary’s College Kisubi and Kiira College Butiiki takes stage on Saturday 8th July 2023 at Muteesa II stadium, Wankulukuku.
The idea that was generated from a dream by FUFA President Hon. Magogo Moses Hassim finally came to reality as the newly born baby finally kicked off three weeks ago with alot of positives to pick from all the 8 participating traditional schools.
From promising footballers to potential media personalities, the chairman organising committee of the tournament and FUFA EXCO Member Dr. Apollo Ahimbisibwe in an interview with FUFA Communications Department believes they have ticked most of the boxes and it can only get better going forward.
FUFA COMM: How was the FUFA Tv cup idea generated?
Dr. Apollo Ahimbisibwe: The Federation is mandated to protect, develop and to promote the game and in it’s wisdom it wanted to address the gap of developing the game and when your developing you can’t do so unless you have competitions so this was to address the gap the we had seen in the schools tournament where some were not participating in the national footballing tournaments around and these are mostly schools that are excellent in academics and traditional that had put much of their focus on other games such as rugby, basketball, etc so the Federation under Hon. Magogo Moses Hassim thought wise to come up with such a tournament so that these schools could play against each other and anyone who has been following this tournament can testify.
FUFA COMM: What is your general assessment and take about the tournament?
Dr. Apollo Ahimbisibwe: First of all, it was a dream by the federation to start such a tournament and in the projection we thought that there are good players in these schools. If you have been following you have seen that there are outstanding players in the tournament. I believe if more traditional schools took part we would get more players and I believe that has been achieved in the first edition.
FUFA COMM: Do you feel the purpose and agenda of putting up this tournament has been achieved?
Dr. Apollo Ahimbisibwe: When the tournament was starting, the federation had goals that we wanted to achieve and one of the goals was let these students and schools play football which we have seen and it’s exciting, we have trained coaches, the games masters have been trained as coaches, we have trained media officers and if you have been following, you can tell. The other dream was to identify players and we can only get better going forward.
FUFA COMM: What is your general perspective about the performance of the 8 participating traditional schools in the inaugural tournament?
Dr. Apollo Ahimbisibwe: Those that are more technical than me probably saw other things but as chairman, I believe if a boy is bright in school then he should make a bright footballer because some of these things you must be able to grasp what the coaches are telling you and a person that can grasp hard concepts that have velocity, momentum and are bright in class. I believe this will help them as well football wise and you can see this when playing. Their intelligence is top notch and I believe excellence in academics can lead to excellence in sports.
FUFA COMM: A number of traditional schools feel they were left out in the inaugural tournament, should we expect the number to increase from 8 in the next editions and what could be the criteria for entrace?
Dr. Apollo Ahimbisibwe: The truth is many schools wanted to participate and have approached us but the first thing we are going to do is to evaluate the tournament with the committee and see what we have done right and wrong and see a way forward. But I am certain it is going to get bigger and better. We shall involve more traditional schools that are also excelling in academics.
FUFA COMM: What is at stake in terms of prizes to the participating schools?
Dr. Apollo Ahimbisibwe: First of all we thank FUFA Tv for the sponsorship, teams were given home and away jerseys, equipment like balls, education to coaches, media officers which was all met by FUFA. The winning team will be given a trophy and medals plus silver medals to runners up. We also have cash prizes but this will be given to schools in stationary, scholastic materials to improve on the excellence in academics as well as rewarding all individuals that have excelled, certificates to all participants schools, players and coaches.
FUFA COMM: After the climax of the tournament, what next for the top performing players?
Dr. Apollo Ahimbisibwe: The Federation put in place two ambassadors who have been doing the scouting for us and these are celebrated football stars, Hassan Wasswa and Tonny Mawejje who have done a good job. We are finding the best players that we can put together, find them probably active games they can play in as well as summoning them to the Junior National teams.
A total of 33 goals have been scored so far with Kiira College Butiki’s Gift Fred Mutalya leading the scoring chart on 7 goals.
FUFA Tv Cup Organizing Committee
Dr. Ahimbisibwe Apollo – Chairman
Mr. Mugerwa Jeremiah (Mengo Senior School) – Vice Chairman
Mr. Kiwanuka Roberts – Member
Mr. Ayub Khalifa – Member
Ms. Nambafu Justine – Member
Mr. Balinaine John Moses (Jinja College) – Member
Mr. Mugalu Ronald Malcom (St. Mary’s College Kisubi) – Member
Mr. Nyonyintono David – FUFA Secretariat (Competitions Officer)
