Federation of Uganda Football Associations (FUFA) president won’t be seeking re-election for another term in office despite earlier indicating his desire to contest and appeared destined to win again.
It was shocking that the man who has spent eight years at the helm of the biggest football office in the land revealed to his executive members at an ‘extra-ordinary executive sitting’ on Monday at Fufa Head quarters in Mengo.
A lot of reasons have been raised on why he took the decision to exit. One of the reasons Daily Monitor reports is that government is set to disband the federation for issues related to illegality and accountability and that Mulindwa was tipped off by some insiders in government to announce he is pulling of the race even before the projected August 31 elections are held.
“The Solicitor General’s report was so damning on FUFA and if we had put out to the public the dirty things that have been happening at Fufa before Cranes games (Liberia and Angola), it would have messed everything. So after the Solicitor General returned the report, we wondered what to do because the recommendations were that we had to disband FUFA and hold some individuals accountable for running a national association as a limited company and using public money under false pretense. There are several irregularities I cannot disclose”, an unnamed source is quoted by Daily Monitor.
The other reasons advanced is that Mulindwa was fed up of government’s failure to fund the game alleging that he had always dug from his pockets to finance most of the federation work including offering personal money to the national team.
Whether to believe the former or latter is difficult but the St. Mary’s Kitende proprietor knows why he quit. Besides, that will be something for another day as time can answer that as well.
Back to the main topic, it’s time to evaluate the man’s eight year tenure office.
When Mulindwa assumed office on December 17, 2005, his first promise was to take Uganda back to the Africa Nations Cup finals for the first time since 1978. He leaves without achieving the ultimate dream but not without a fight.
Under his reign, the Cranes have missed on five editions (2006, 2008, 2010, 2012 and 2013) but by a knife edge and signs of progress were visible after every campaign.
For instance, in the 2008 campaign, many Ugandans agree that if South Africa and Zambia had not played syndicate as its alleged, Cranes would have progressed. Then come 2012, just a point separated Uganda from Angola in the group and the Cranes lost an opportunity to play in the recent AFCON edition simply because they lost to the then reigning Africa Champions then Zambia on penalties.
In addition, during his reign, Uganda Cranes became the country’s number one sports brand with all Ugandan associating with it unlike before. No wonder, only a handful of home games failed to fill Namboole to capacity. The Cranes created hope and players were attracted to play for the national team due to the motivation of bonuses and things like that his leadership offered. The Cranes were looked after very well and always dressed smart unlike before when they could train on empty stomachs like it happened in 2004 and also donned the Inter Milan jersey in the 2000 CECAFA Challenge Cup in Kampala to the embarrassment of the nation.
The problem of failure to bring a foreign based player for a Cranes engagement were unheard of during his regime plus he hired foreign coaches (Laslo Csaba, Bobby Williamson and Mulitin Sredojevic aka Micho) to steer the national team to greater heights.
Besides, his regime secured corporate sponsorship for the national team. Companies such MTN Uganda, NIC and Nile Breweries have come on board.
Under his leadership, the Cranes dominated the CECAFA region winning four trophies in 2008, 2009, 2011 and 2012. Records show that no FUFA president ranks beyond him when it comes to this section.
Added to that, Uganda Cranes has not lost a home game thus labeling Namboole a fortress. Uganda’s last loss at home dates far back to 2004 when a dubious penalty gave South Africa a 1-0 victory.
Mulindwa’s other achievements include the construction of the FUFA technical centre at Njeru courtesy of the FIFA goal project grant and also saved the federation from collapse by paying off loans the previous administration had acquired through mortgages including the FUFA House at Mengo.
On the other hand, Mulindwa had failures many of which were his own making. In the first place, he failed to deliver the Cranes to AFCON finals yet this was major point in his manifesto. On top of failing on five occasions, many Ugandans will never forgive him for chasing Cranes best player then David Obua from camp on the eve of the must win game against Kenya in the 2012 qualifiers. There is no guarantee that if David had played, Uganda would have won but many believe this was a turning point in Uganda’s failure to beat Harambee Stars.
Secondly, Mulindwa concentrated all his efforts on the Cranes and forgot that football must be built from the grass roots.
This explains why it’s difficult to trace any football development from downwards during his reign. This can be witnessed in a scenario when Uganda was banned from the U-17 competitions for fielding an over age player. He cared less about youth football and this explains there is no systematic transition of players from under age teams to national level.
In his quest to concentrate efforts on the Cranes, Mulindwa did nothing to develop league football and this is easily observed in his leadership’s consistent efforts to frustrate clubs and super league sponsors that culminated into two national leagues last season.
Uganda Breweries, Supersport and Uganda Super League were discarded by creating a new rival league called the Fufa Super League.
In addition, Mulindwa’s reign created double faced clubs in the league and it’s on record that members of his executive including former lawyer Muhammad Bazirengedde and Vice President Administration Moses Magogo were involved in creation of a rival SC Villa.
By doing this, Mulindwa and company forgot that a strong national league translates into a strong national team since leagues feed national teams.
In addition, Mulindwa personalized the institution FUFA thus all the members whether on the executive or assembly were only answerable to him and not FUFA and he was answerable to himself. That explains why he acted as a dictator (Obua’s incident) and always took criticism with a heavy heart. Remember when he called critics ‘Bed bugs and Night dancers’?
He was a man who personalized victory and nationalized failure.
Mulindwa’s regime disrespected the constitution and this explains why controversial clauses were inserted into the constitution (as testified by former Fufa lawyer) and holding of illegal grass root elections that brought in the current delegates.
Under his leadership, women soccer went to limbo yet there is an allocation of money from FIFA to women football development. There is no national women football league in Uganda and it’s easy to recall that not more than 10 matches have involved the She Cranes.
In conclusion, Mulindwa leaves with the population divided on whether he will be greatly missed or not. Those who say he will be missed cite another exciting point of how he used his personal money to invest in football especially on the national team which is difficult to testify but others argue that this over reliance on Mulindwa’s kindness led to personalization of FUFA.
Besides, it’s difficult to know how much he invested and got out on return.
Nevertheless, Mulindwa leaves a legacy on Uganda’s football whether as a ‘Messiah’ or just a ‘Head Master’ like his cynics refer to him. It’s upon you to judge.
