Proline FC's Kasule launches scathing criticism of Fufa's UPL reforms

The Federation of Uganda Football Associations (Fufa) has attracted criticism following their proposal to reduce the number of Premier League clubs from 16 to 12.

Proline FC chairman Mujib Kasule has said the federation is not the right body to make such proposals. To Kasula, Fufa just needs to receive proposals from clubs and implement them, but not formulate and take them to the public for debate.

“It’s not the role of Fufa's executive to pass proposals,” Kasule told Football256.

“It’s football stakeholders, like clubs and individuals to forward ideas to the governing body but not the executive to bring proposals to the public, to me that was wrong.”

“The role of the executive is to pass the reforms but not to sit in the meetings and draft ideas and send them to the public.” 

In the circular dated March 27, Fufa argued the reduction of teams in the UPL will help streamline the running of the competition.

“It is paramount new reforms are instituted to, among others, enhance the quality of clubs, increase sporting competition, improve service delivery by organizers, create better Club and League Brands, and increase revenues for both the clubs and the league,” the circular read.

But Kasule feels it is going to complicate matters even more.

“This idea is going to take us backwards when you look into those countries mentioned [Kenya, Tanzania, and Rwanda], their leagues are better than us in terms of organization but when you compare their talents with us, we are far better than them,” explained the Proline official.

“The thirst and love for football in Uganda are just growing, people from different regions are paving ways to see how they get clubs in the top-flight league in their areas.

“But if you reduce numbers, you will be diminishing those people’s chances of having top-flight football.

“The fact is if you reduce teams, you will be doing a disservice to football and centring it in the central region which is not good.

“The reason they gave why they want to reduce the numbers; it’s because they want to be the number one football nation in Africa.

“They would have got the model league in Africa and get to know how they got there, but we didn’t do that, we just bumped into the idea.”

Fufa proposed, should the reforms be adopted eventually, a domestic season consisting of 12 teams which will start in the 2021/22 campaign.