By Moses Magogo
It has never been like right now that the Ugandan football brand needs the Express brand. On our road to recovery of league football, an indigenous football club, a continental brand with arguably the biggest history and following is needed in the mix of football rivalry which is the DNA of league football
However, we must appreciate that the problems of Express FC are just symptoms of failure by Ugandan football to plan for the future in the early 90s. We are reaping what was sowed. It is not Only Express but the same problem at SC Villa and only current sporting results are making the situation look different.
Personally I don’t believe in winning the league or relegation as the solution to SC Villa and Express problems. The positions could be reversed next season with Express attempting to win the league SC Villa fighting relegation. They are both plastic situations. The real problem is still not addressed.
The bitter truth is that even if Express is relegated or it survives and even if SC Villa wins the League or not, they continue to slowly but surely grind to a halt. This deaccelerating process started in the mid-90s after the SC Villa and Express FC failed to plan and build on the Continental Sporting Success of the early 90s. It is very unfair to entirely condemn the current leaderships at these clubs for the current status. However, history will judge them if they choose now than later to reorganize the clubs for the long term. If nothing is done now, both of these great football brands will be extinct in the next 10 years. Only poor organization of the competitors have made them survive this long
As a football family, we must sit down and plan long term for these historic football brands. The Express and Villa brands are victims of rich people investing their personal monies into clubs and should wake up to a new era where it is a game of numbers and which numbers they already have but continually dwindling. Who is the rich man or which institution owns Onduparak? In my view *ONLY* Onduparak is currently running the correct club model successfully yet Express and SC Villa have the advantage of the Brands and the numbers
Whether Express is relegated or not, FUFA will continue to offer Express FC and any other Club the FUFA Clubs Pro Agenda Programme especially during the off season. The programme is a long term solution not a fixer. We opted to withhold the programme at Express not to be mistaken to tamper with sporting results at Express. We hope and pray that Express FC survives but unfortunately we cannot with the rules and sporting results.
The author is the President of FUFA
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