Rugyendo’s board promise to review FUFA’s powers over UPL clubs

The new Uganda Premier League board pose for a photo with NCS' David Katende and FUFA 3rd VP florence Nakiwala.

FOOTBALL Rugyendo’s board promise to review FUFA’s powers over UPL clubs

Fred Mwambu • 10:26 - 02.10.2023

Some of the clubs that have sprung up in recent seasons feel the Jinja Declaration needed to be reviewed because half of the teams in the league weren’t present.

The FUFA Super League Limited chairman Arinaitwe Rugyendo has said that the body is ready to initiate talks with FUFA to increase the powers of the Uganda Premier League clubs.

Rugyendo was reelected for a fourth term last month alongside his vice David Sserebe, board members Fred Kawuma and Humphrey Mandu, and Martin Ssekajja, who was elected for the first time.

The board has come under fire for failing to protect and advocate for the Uganda Premier League clubs.

Jinja Declaration

Rugyendo agrees that the famous Jinja Declaration that brought the current league structure into place is now outdated and its content needs a review.

“This is the best board ever to run and stabilize the league,” Rugyendo told Pulse Sports in an interview as he starts his new four-year term.

“Most of their [clubs] problems and complaints actually are not around the board but the way football is structured in Uganda, particularly the Jinja Declaration charter that gave so much power to the federation, for example,” he revealed some of the issues raised by the club.

The Jinja Declaration is a document signed by the clubs and FUFA on January 23rd, 2010, in a bid to facilitate the transition of the topflight league into a fully professional league.

Among the issues that the declaration was seeking to address were the areas of organisation and administration of the clubs and league, the technical structure and facilities.

New voices

Only eight of the 16 clubs in this season’s Uganda Premier League were present in that meeting in 2010.

They include URA, KCCA, Vipers, Express and Simba which is now called UPDF FC.

The others are SC Villa and Maroons FC.

Some of the clubs that have sprung up in recent seasons feel the document needed to be reviewed because half of the teams in the league weren’t present.

Constricted

Rugyendo partly agrees with the suggestion, adding that the league has made strides to be able to manage its affairs.

“These powers were granted to the FA by the clubs themselves, though some of them might not have been around by that time so I think that sometimes they see a lot of powers in the hands of the FA and are not able to make certain decisions

“I think, yes,” he added when asked his opinion about revisiting the agreement, adding that “the idea that time was that extremely hostile and between that time and now, the league has proven that it can run itself. There’s no reason why it can’t be reviewed.”

FUFA president Eng. Moses Magogo recently noted that the declaration expired and there was a need to move forward.

“As far as we are concerned, the Jinja Declaration was a 2010-2014 strategy. Therefore, it expired six years ago. How football was being looked at ten years ago isn’t the same right now,” Magogo said during an interview with FUFA in April 2020.

He added: “We think the Jinja Declaration did its part, and we are here partly because of some of the things listed therein. We can engage another gear to go forward.”

Magogo was the chairman of the ad-hoc committee that was tasked to oversee the process.

READ THE JINJA DECLARATION HERE: JINJA DECLARATION PDF 

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