The players’ strike is another testimony that a lot is yet to be done to get a full professional football industry in Uganda. Education and sensitization of how the industry should operate needs to be more explicit as the fans, the players, the media, the administrators, the regulators and government are yet to understand the concept. The amateur football was here for too long for us to suddenly jump into the deep waters of professional football. I have cautioned before that not many people understand the concept yet the biggest problem is that most of the trusted commentators do not know that they actually don’t know
Professional football is a business equation where human, time and financial resources are invested into a process to create a football product that is bought at a higher fee than the cost of input. The human resource is composite of players, coaches, referees, administrators or more generally other professional and support staff to the process. The buyers of the product are the fans while the club owners are the investors into this process. FUFA are regulators to enforce association football rules while USL are the business conglomerate of clubs to package the football product to be good enough for the buyers.
The question is, of the mentioned parties, who is really doing anything close to their expectations? Are they even aware of this business equation? Are our coaches and players aware that they must contribute to the income of the clubs? Professional football has nothing like a rich man investing his personal money into a club or even an institution club like URA FC investing funds from elsewhere into the club. Actually in Europe it is outlawed to use funds not earned from selling a football product into a club
I wish to live a dream of a player plying his trade in Uganda earning from his talent like it is in Europe but we must all work to earn the dream. Let us face the reality, the players are paid very meagerly and I deeply share their concern but where should their pay come from? If all the Sponsorship money went into paying players, thus 68 million per club for 25 players for 12 months, each player would earn 226,667 UGX before NSSF and PAYE.
The picture is better represented in the table herein as the MINIMUM budget for a club to complete its fixtures over a season
I am aware there are clubs that are paying for lunch every day for the 25 players and paying housing allowance for the rent of the players in addition to their salaries. As we speak, there is only one source of funds for clubs and that is Sponsorship. If we think the 68 million shillings from the sponsors was to be offset, where is the UGX 82 million to run the club to coming from? Commentators are painting a situation where someone is earning off the sweat of players yet the truth is someone is spending hard earned personal cash into a club. Owning a football club is an addiction more like gambling or drugs well aware that it is a danger to your person but you continue to spend. Do you know why the former big cub spenders (read rehabilitated) former club official like Omar Mandela and Kirumira never come back? It is ironical that even some “fans” who do not watch club games are saying the players should be paid at least xxx amounts.
In a professional environment, the clubs would be earning from gate collections, media rights, club sponsorships, prize monies, sale of players, merchandising etc but we are all aware that currently none of the above is a source of revenue to clubs. We should actually be grateful to men like Col Jackson Tushabe Bells (Victors), Lawrence Mulindwa (Bunamwaya), the men at Express, SC Villa, and the institutions that provide the funds to clubs. The last league game to make worth gate collection was in 2003 and the stadia have been empty since then, so where has the money to run these clubs been coming from. I implore all critics of the clubs and sympathizers of the players to get their calculators before they point figures. The current USL football economy is retrogressive and growing in negative double digit percentage.
Having said that, the players have genuine issues that we must all accept. First and foremost there must be VALID contracts between players and clubs. The standard contract content and formatting should be included, the players should understand the contracts they are signing and copies should be given to players too. It is also important that clubs fulfill their obligations however little it may be. Let clubs accept players to be properly represented in contract discussions by persons of their choice. This has nothing to do with money.
I further implore the players to appreciate that the business equation of the league. They are required to cause income to clubs for them to be paid better. Without revenue to clubs, all they are demanding for is someone to get money from his pocket to pay them on top of providing an environment for them to play football. Players should further desist from being used by football politicians and vultures who have a different agenda. The valid concerns are watered down by demanding for FUFA officials’ resignation and stopping league games. Even in Spain and Italy, it had to be done during the off-season.
On the side of FUFA, we demanded that the clubs undergo a club licensing process and one of the conditions was valid players’ contracts. The officials at USL resisted and undermined the exercise and for example Express SC did not submit any single contract and was not eligible to play in the league by rules. Our issues to date with USL have been undermining football rules.
All in all, FUFA has an obligation to ensure that players and the clubs are protected. Personally I think the matter of local player agents should have taken root by this time.
About the Author: Magogo is the Vice president of FUFA in charge of Administration and a FIFA certified Administration Instructor. Besides Football, he is an Engineer working with African Development Bank )
