Football will continue to be led by wolves in absence of integrity test

The Baganda have a saying that enkima tesala gwa kibira, which literally means that a monkey cannot be a judge in its own forest.

Fufa, the local football body, is actually the proverbial monkey when it comes to the running of the game. A few days ago, Fufa president Moses Magogo gloatingly warned those interested in taking his seat to start prepar- ing early to avoid excuses of being locked out when they fail to meet the requisite requirements.

It is strange that Magogo, who has been at the game’s helm for the past 11 years, is warning his opponents now, yet there is still some 14 months to go before the next Fufa election. To me, this is a diversion at a time when there are pressing issues in the game. Afterall, there is even no election roadmap and, as we have seen in the past, that roadmap keeps changing depending on the executive’s whims.

More importantly, this is a ploy by the Fufa executive to identify potential opponents within and outside and lock them out through creation of new restrictive clauses on eligibility. That’s how Mujib Kasule was locked out in 2021 and I highly doubt there is anyone who will be allowed to stand against Magogo in 2025.

He has already vowed that for anyone to dream of upstaging him, they will have to possess a Football Administration and Management Course (FAMACO) certification, which only he and his vice Justus Mugisha have. If President Museveni can allow John Katumba ‘Oyee’ to contest against him, how can Fufa ring-fence positions by placing barriers on potential candidates?

At best, Fufa would at least have aligned their electoral commission with that of Fifa, the global football body. However, doing so would mean that Magogo is ineligible to stand because the Fifa Disciplinary Code and Code of Ethics bars anyone convicted of football fraud from standing for elective positions.

So, Fufa tactfully avoid that key component of integrity. So, by lowering the integrity test, Fufa and Magogo can freely preach water to potential opponents as they drink wine.

Afterall, they are accountable to no one. When they commissioned a match-fixing probe in 2017, several testimonies implicated several top-level officials in the vice.The solution was to shelve the report out of the public domain.

So, you cannot expect someone who cannot pass a Fifa test to apply the same strict rules in a Fufa election. Instead, they will create every rule possible to lock out opponents.

But regardless of the traps, it would be a different story if the mandate to organize Fufa elections was handed to Fifa or an independent government commission.

The author is SC Villa president emeritus