Uganda: Time to Harmonise Calendar

Andrew Mwanguhya

22 April 2011

Wednesday’s Shs12b broadcast rights deal between the Ecobank Super League and South African-based Pay TV SuperSport could perhaps be the reference point in future once Ugandan football is in full flight.

The deal will see SuperSport screen live local league matches starting next season, train local staff in TV production, presenting and football administration, as well as invest Shs830m every season in the 14 clubs to develop their infrastructure.

But for this to succeed, the game should prevail over individual egos. Perhaps, one of the most important issues to address is soccer body Fufa and ESL to harmonise their calendar.

While all are obliged to follow the Fifa calender, this season has already seen the two parties indulge in counter accusations after the national team’s engagements forced several league games’ postponement.

“This is a commercial deal and every bit of it has to be respected,” said ESL board boss Kavuma Kabenge at Serena on Wednesday.

“I call upon Fufa and all clubs to work with us. Since this is TV, there are issues of time. If the game is already been booked, it will not be economically viable to tell SuperSport to reschedule it because the Cranes or some club are in other engagements.

“The affected clubs will have to provide the players to play the scheduled game.” Several league games involving Bunnamwaya, URA, and Proline among others were postponed late last year because three or more of their players were involved in Cranes’ Middle East tour in Yemen, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. More were postponed later in January as several players were involved with the Cranes in the invitational Nile Basin tournament in Cairo, Egypt.

Express’ prolonged tour of Vietnam also affected fixtures. All these were not on the Fifa calendar. But Fufa technical director Asuman Lubowa is positive. “We shall sit with ESL and chart a way forward,” he said, “It shouldn’t be a problem.”

AllAfrica – All the Time