INTERVIEW: SC Villa is too broke to compete on continent

Posted By Online Reporter at 11 January, at 12 : 35 PM Print

John Vianney Nsimbe

Edward Luyimbazi Mugalu has been SC Villa secretary since 1975 and is probably the longest serving club secretary in World football. He spoke to John Vianney Nsimbe about his club’s most recent decision to pull out of this year’s continental CAF Confederation Cup and what lies ahead

What’s the good thing you can boast of at SC Villa right now?

There is a lot of good happening at Villa today. We’re winning games again after a few hiccups. Of course, I know at the back of your mind you’re thinking of the recent bad results we’ve posted but that’s because the team is just beginning to gel. We’ve so many new players from our academy and first division that are yet to settle in, otherwise we’re happy about what’s going on. Also, the club’s administration is doing well as a unit.

Villa’s withdrawal from the CAF Confederations Cup shocked people….

But why? Villa isn’t the first team to withdraw from a continental engagement. The bottom-line however is that we didn’t have the money to take part. We needed at least Shs 120 million for the first home and away tie. We expected some help from our sponsors Uganda Telecom Limited but there wasn’t any response from them. They were our only hope and since we didn’t get anything from them we had to pull out.

But you never sought the fans support and you wrote to utl on December 24. That was very late for a team that won the Kakungulu Cup in June……

No! We’ve been verbally communicating with our sponsors. But what happened on December 24 was simply the formal letter that was signed by our club President Franco Mugabe requesting for financial support. There is no way we could have sought the fans support, yet they don’t even watch the league games. If someone can’t afford to buy you a handkerchief, can they afford to buy you a shirt?

I’m not belittling them but that’s the situation of our fans. Mobilizing the fans is Dennis Mbidde’s work but he hasn’t succeeded either. And I have heard that Mbidde is telling you pressmen that we didn’t consult them before taking this decision. How can we consult someone we don’t even see at the team’s training session?

Your attacks on Mbidde actually sound like you’re running a divided institution…

You can say what you want about Villa. But it’s not true that the old and new leaders at Villa have a power struggle. The problem with some of them is that they rush a lot and some of them are abusive which is bad. But you can see now that we’ve embraced Peter Nsaba, Allan Papoak, Fred Muwema and Mbidde.

Surely, Mr. Luyimbazi, the last time Villa was on the continent was 2005. What have you been doing as a serious administration to build structures from which to get money?

Young man, you should appreciate what we do to keep the team running. Do you know who pays the players’ wages; house rent; lunch; school fees and so forth? It’s just a few individuals that sacrifice their little money for the good of Villa. If you had better people that could fund the team for continental ties this year, I don’t see why you didn’t bring them. Since 2005, Villa has been suffering a lot financially and it’s no one’s fault.

Doesn’t this affect the image of a big club like Villa?

It certainly affects the image of the team strongly and we aren’t happy to be out of the CAF Confederations Cup. But what’s most important is how we emerge from this set-back. We’ve a group of players to look after and two Cups we’re competing for this season. We’ll try and win them both so that we get another chance to play on the continent.

Won’t you pull out again and cause the football fraternity more humiliation?

We’ll cross the bridge once we reach there. But what surprises me most is that you people can’t sympathize with us who keep the team moving with limited corporate support.

Now that you as administrators don’t know how to bring back the fans, isn’t it an admission that you’ve failed in your duties?

What do you expect us to do now? We’ve tried the best way we know how but nothing works in attracting fans back to watching our games. If you have a solution, why don’t you tell me? Our football has improved but fans have still kept away. We even have a fans mobilizer, Mbidde who’s in charge of this project but he has also not succeeded.

Villa has since 2003 been blighted by news that there is an official who sodomizes players. How true is that?

I surely have nothing to say about that because it’s simply a rumour. No one has come up with full proof to ascertain the prevalence of homosexuality in our club.

Isn’t this a habit of you Villa officials hiding your heads in the sand pretending there is no homosexuality in your club because the suspect funds the club?

If you have any evidence why don’t you tell us? People have criticized us that we don’t bother investigating but we have and we had no proof. If you go to steal, do you tell all your friends? You want me to accuse someone over something I can’t substantiate and then get arrested? Leave me alone!

I hope you won’t deny that all the lack of football fans in the stadia today is the making of Villa when you decided to fix matches and score 22 goals in 2003?

Why Villa and not the rest of the teams? It’s collective responsibility and if to you Villa is the worst team that has killed Ugandan football, I can’t change your opinion. How can you even suggest that we were never punished or that some people had to be jailed? After the 22 goals, we were punished when that game was considered null and void.

Was that punishment ample in your view?

Why not? Did you want people’s throats to be chopped off as the deserved punishment?

The current Villa executive is existing illegally since 2006 because they were never elected yet you’ve been promising election every year. What’s your view on that?

We shall elect when the appropriate time comes. We haven’t seen any able leaders for Villa coming up. So, whether we’re in office illegally or not, it doesn’t matter.

But you just said that you have the young ducks like Muwema and Papoak. Aren’t they good enough?

Take it from me, we will elect when the right time comes.

Finally, tell me what your administration has done since 2004 when you promised to sell shares and have an active website?

We’ve managed to keep the team together under very harsh conditions and problems. I have also complained about the website not being updated for many years now but that is going to be sorted. We’re now SC Villa Limited with I, Mugabe, Kapeera and Mandela as directors. We even borrow money on behalf of the club using our corporate name. About the floating of shares, that will happen soon.

That’s what you say every time- soon. But don’t you think it’s time to put other people in charge to steer the club into the modern era?

Rome wasn’t built in one day. We’ve so many programmes for this team both locally and on the continent. We now have an office on Platinum House, second floor, room 10. It’s run by Nsaba with a lot of ideas boiling in there.

jovi@observer.ug

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