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The current standoff between Vipers SC and the Federation of Uganda Football Associations (Fufa) is not merely a dispute over fixtures or formats.
It is the final, painful symptom of a terminal disease that has been eating away at the heart of our beautiful game for years. What we are witnessing is not a battle for football’s soul, but the last, lonely stand against its calculated executioner.
Let us be clear: this is a brutal clash between a prodigal son, the Fufa president Moses Magogo and Vipers’ Dr Lawrence Mulindwa. But to dismiss it as such is to miss the sinister plot unfolding in plain sight.
Dr Mulindwa is not fighting for Vipers alone; he is fighting a rearguard action for the very principle of fair governance, a concept Fufa has long since abandoned. The timing of Fufa’s imposition of a new league format is a masterclass in cynicism, not sporting integrity.
Magogo, a seasoned political operator, deliberately chose the heat of the 2026 election campaign, knowing the Minister of Education and Sports, First Lady Janet Museveni, would be too occupied to intervene.
Worse still, he has weaponized the state machinery, creating a toxic narrative that any club opposing his new league format is an enemy of the government. This is not football administration; it is political blackmail.
Therefore, why is Vipers standing alone? The answer lies in an effective strategy of coercion and co-option deployed by Fufa against a fragmented Uganda Premier League (UPL).
Check this out; the UPL comprises three distinct categories: institutional clubs, community clubs run as limited companies, and community clubs under trusts. They have different drivers, different pressures and cannot be treated as one bloc. Yet, Fufa’s “reforms” bulldoze these critical differences. Look at the 16 clubs.
Eleven are institutional clubs, whose very existence often depends on staying in the government’s good graces. For Magogo, this subservience extends to parliament, where he is an MP for Budiope East. So, he has created a political echo chamber that silences dissent of institutional clubs.
Then, there are the community clubs. My beloved SC Villa, which I served as president for four years, is a tragic case study. The current Villa administration is vulnerable, shackled by its own skeletons—failure to hold elections, unanswered questions over billions of shillings in Uganda National Roads Authority (UNRA) compensation.
Magogo needs only to whisper to the fans about the whereabouts of the Shs 4 billion to bring the club administration to its knees. Furthermore, the club’s chairman, Omar Ahmed Mandela, a retail businessman, has a multi-billion-shilling carrot dangled before him by Fufa.
That’s the lucrative feeding contracts for the 2027 Afcon that Uganda is set to co-host, having reportedly netted millions from the recent Chan tournament. So, it is not a surprise that Villa made a U-turn to accept the new format.
This was not about consensus, but a capitulation bought with future promises. Understandably, other clubs such as BUL, whose chairman Ronald Barente is now a Fufa executive member, and NEC, accepted the new format for corporate social responsibility, not for competitive fervour.
In short, with the exception of Vipers, the entire league has been subdued, not persuaded. Notably, at no point was UPL board part of the league review process until recently when clubs objected what Arinaitwe Rugyendo, the UPL board chair, paraded in the meetings.
The most glaring illegality in this charade is the presence of Florence Nakiwala Kiyingi on the Fufa executive, purportedly representing the UPL. By what law does she represent clubs to which she has no attachment?
To me, this is the root of the rot. I forewarned of this very scenario four years ago. When the league’s representative has no stake in the clubs, the league ceases to be a united institution and becomes a puppet and an agent of the federation’s ills and selfish manipulations.
So, Ugandan football did not die today. It died the moment the Fufa executive allowed this farce to take root. It died when the love for gate collections was mysteriously replaced by a hunger for backroom percentages.
There is an old African proverb: When a leopard tells its cubs that they smell like goats, it’s a sign it wants to eat them. Fufa has spent years telling our clubs that they were weak and need its reforms. Now, it is preparing for the feast.
Dr Mulindwa and Vipers are the last goat standing. If they fall, the leopard will have the whole pen to itself. And there will be no football left worth saving.
The author is a football investor and SC Villa President Emeritus
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