Hassan Badru Zziwa

After SC Villa’s recent withdrawal from the CAF Confederation Cup citing financial constraints, several football fans have sought my opinion on the logic behind the decision as well as the repercussions on the players and the club as a whole. To understand the whole issue, one needs to recite previous incidents and how they impacted on Ugandan football.

VILLA WITHDRAWAL FROM CAF CUP IN 1992

After winning everything on the domestic front on top of lifting the CECAFA Club Championship, SC Villa had also finished runners-up in the 1991 Africa Club Championship as well as the CAF Cup of 1992.

1993 had The Jogoos once again representing Uganda in the Africa Club Championship with renewed hopes of going a step better. Indeed, the Villa Park side started the campaign by dismissing Burundi’s Vital’O in the first round before steamrolling past AS Sotema of Madagascar to book a quarterfinal tie against ASEC Mimosas of Ivory Coast.

The first leg on September 4 at Nakivubo nearly brought work in Kampala to a standstill as Villa faced off with arguably Africa’s best side at the time. In fact, Asec boasted of several members of Ivory Coast’s 1992 Africa Cup of Nations winning side and in many ways, this was a tall order for Villa.

Villa also suffered a big blow few days to the game when defender William Nkemba got injured while midfield gem Stephen Bogere – who had just returned to Villa – failed to get his CAF license in time.
As a result, coach Timothy Ayeikoh handed Nkemba’s young brother Ivan Kawooya a debut in central defense, switching skipper Paul Hasule to the right back.

Come D-day, the Ivorians dominated the homeboys and Gbahou Jean Marie had a goal disallowed in the 28th minute because of an infringement on Villa goalie Mike Mukasa. In the second half Asec piled more pressure and in the 67th minute, Sekou Bamba scored for the visitors. Villa quickly introduced Moses Basena for midfielder Robert Semakula and with just a minute left, Basena equalised from Hasule’s corner to send the stadium into wild cheers.

SC Villa’s line-up: Mike Mukasa, Paul Hasule, Adam Semugabi, Ivan Kawooya, Robert Mukiibi, Paul Nkata, Robert Semakula (Moses Basena), Paul Mukatabala, Mathias Kaweesa (Iddi Batambuze), Enock Kyembe and Sula Kato.

Though the first leg result left SC Villa with a mountain to climb, their biggest worry was the travel costs to West Africa. Villa had hoped to reap not less than Shs 60m but ended up collecting Shs 35m from gate collections.

As fate would have it, it is said that some officials took advantage of the absence of the club supremo Patrick Kawooya, who suffered a stroke on the eve of the match, to divert some of the money to private use. After deducting other expenses, the club announced it was remaining with only Shs 5m, yet they needed about Shs 21million for the trip.

Prior to the match, Kawooya had been booked on a September 5 flight to France where, he was scheduled to collect the remaining balance from the sale of Magid Musisi to French Club Rennes. He had already made tickets reservations for the team to fly to Ivory Coast.

As such, the team was scheduled to fly on September 22 in order to acclimatize before match day of September 25. However, Kawooya’s abrupt stroke changed the whole situation. And in an effort to raise funds, club officials met on September 12 but only managed to raise Shs 13m, Shs 8m short of the target.

COSTLY PULLOUT

On that backdrop, SC Villa announced their withdrawal from the second leg. This decision was reached without any consultation with local football body neither FUFA nor National Council of Sports. Instead the club wrote to FUFA and copied to NCS announcing the pullout.

Stunned by the development, then NCS chairman late Abbey Kafumbe Mukasa worked around the clock to top up the balance in vain, leaving FUFA with no alternative but to communicate to CAF and the Ivorian FA.

SC Villa had not anticipated the repercussions of the decision but a few weeks later CAF communicated to FUFA asking Uganda to compensate Asec with $ 90,000 (around Shs 90m at the time). CAF also warned that Ugandan sides will not be allowed to compete in any CAF event until a commitment is done to pay the fine.

FUFA convened a meeting with Super Division Clubs all parties agreed to forfeit part of their gate colletions to pay the fine. SC Villa was also ordered to make a down payment of Shs 10m. In essence, it took two years before the fine was completed.

DIVIDED CLUB

However, the pullout didn’t leave SC Villa unscathed, as a section of fans demanded a change of leadership, which eventually saw the end of Kawooya’s 14-year reign on December 19, 1993 and ushered in Franco Mugabe.

However, Kawooya’s supporters cited his dedicated service and great financial input and thus followed him to his newly founded Villa International. CAF though didn’t ban Villa but the club declined to play in the 1994 CAF Cup and the 1995 Africa Club Championship.

MILITARY POLICE

Another case worth noting was that of Military Police. Back in 2001, the team made their debut on the continent in the CAF Cup. Military had finished fifth in the league but it was their runners-up position to SC Villa in the Kakungulu Cup that booked them the continental ticket.

In April that year, Military traveled to Kitwe to honour the first leg of the first round tie against Zambian giants Nkana Red Devils.

However, there had been concern beforehand that playing on the continent would create a big hole in the club’s coffers. The situation became bleaker when they suffered a 0-3 loss. Upon returning home, the club failed to raise the budgeted Shs 30m to host the Zambians and on April 6, the club announced their withdrawal from the April 13 second leg tie.

Since Military announced its inability to host Nkana in time, CAF only fined FUFA $ 1,500 but handed the soldiers a three-year ban from competing in any CAF events. Nkana had also asked CAF to force Military to foot the $ 3,000 they claimed to have lost in booking tickets but this hit a dead end because it was not sanctioned by CAF. The ban and financial hardship affected the team and ended the season in eleventh position.

In 2002, the team was relegated to the lower division and since then it has never returned.
Back to Villa’s current situation, it’s not clear what action CAF will take but it is highly unlikely Villa will be banned since they lodged their withdrawal before kicking a ball. It may also depend on whether Villa’s would-be opponents El Khartoum files an appeal to CAF for lost revenue they would have got in the tie.

And despite information that the Villa executive wants to make a U-turn, it seems unlikely it will be accepted. On the other hand, Villa’s young team of promising players looks set to miss out on the valuable experience of playing on the continent not to mention the exposure that comes with playing at the highest level.

bzziwa@observer.ug

The author is Director, Marketing & Promotions Observer Media

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