By Mark Baber
April 22 – The Ugandan Court of Appeal has rejected the Uganda Super League (USL) Limited application to stop the Federation of Uganda Football Association (FUFA) and Azam TV implementing their sponsorship and broadcast agreement for Uganda’s Premier League.
Justice Remmy Kasule upheld March’s High Court decision, saying a reversal of the status quo would result into a lot of inconvenience and suffering to a number of stakeholders in the game of football in Uganda, the majority of whom were not parties to the dispute between USL and FUFA.
The decision is a major victory for FUFA who have been seeking to destroy the USL and take over the running of Uganda’s top league for themselves, supported by Azam TV who have now displaced their major rival SuperSport, through a strategy of making agreements with governing bodies, leaving leagues and existing broadcast arrangements and sponsorships in tatters.
The USL argument that FUFA’s deal with Azam TV, part of the Tanzanian Bakhresa conglomerate, breached existing agreements with both SuperSport and Uganda Breweries, clearly fell on deaf ears, leaving FUFA free to proceed with their $1.9 million three-and-a-half-year deal with Azam TV.
USL now faces a bleak future with FUFA having already declared last week that it is taking over management of the league.
Although the USL is the big loser in this battle, the war to develop Ugandan football has long been lost – with the country having never really recovered from the match-fixing scandal of 2003 when Villa put 22 goals past Akol FC as the league title went down to goal difference with Express.
The Appeal Court ruling effectively marks the death of the Jinja Declaration, part of the FIFA’s ‘Win in Africa for Africa’ project, from which the USL emerged in 2010. Indeed, with football administrators focused on short-term power battles and allying with rival commercial companies in internecine conflict, almost all Ugandan football fans now enjoy foreign football on their TV screens, rather than the domestic product.
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