Mengo based football governing body, Federation of Uganda Football Associations-FUFA is yet to pronounce it’s stance a year after former SC Villa and URA boss, Ivan Kakembo threatened to drag grassroots football union, Uganda Youth Football Association (UYFA) to courts of law over “political persecution”.
In July last year, Kakembo, threatened to sue the Uganda Youth Football Association (UYFA) following it’s decision to eliminate his academy, Uganda Youth Soccer Academy (UYSA) from the list of registered academies in Uganda, a move Kakembo believed was Malicious.
Early this year, Kampala-based academies were recognised but one of the oldest academies in the country, Uganda Youth Soccer Academy (UYSA) founded in 2007, was excluded.
According to sources close to the UYFA, the motion to denounce UYSA as a fully registered Academy was moved by the UYFA Vice-Chairman Farouk Kigongo during the Association’s AGM last year. Kigongo’s motion sought to have UYSA eliminated and never admitted again based on an argument that the Academy’s name needed to be revised, so as not to be mistaken for an entity owned by the UYFA because of the names that are closely related.
“This can be taken as if the academy Uganda Youth Soccer Academy is for Uganda Youth Football Association,”Noted Kigogo-during the AGM last year
Ivan Kakembo accuses UYFA of double standards in addition to failing to do enough checks that would have brought this to the attention of the concerned parties. “Were there no guidelines that were being followed to ensure such occurrences can be avoided?” Questioned Kakembo.
According to Ivan Kakembo, Farouk Kigongo was also part of the meeting that sat, vetted and approved his academy’s documents ahead of the process. “This is the same delegate that moved a motion during the assembly not to have the UYSA as part of the listed members of the UYFA,”Revealed Kakembo.
“UYSA was founded in 2007 long before the UYFA could come into existence, later on, become a member of FUFA. How then is UYSA expected to register as a new entity with the URSB, start operations and trading as a new entity,”Queried Kakembo.
In a press statement released by the UYSA Director, Ivan Kakembo, the move to eliminate his entity was a politically motivated primitive diatribe which is purely’ intended to demonize youth football programs that have successfully uplifted football talents in Uganda’s Urban slums for the last 16 years.
The Federation of Uganda Football Associations (FUFA), the governing body of football in Uganda and perhaps a would be fall back plan for Kakembo remains tight lipped a year on.
With no fair guidance from FUFA, the future of UYSA hangs on a thread, a threat to the growth and development of football in the country.
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