It breaks my heart to see community clubs going down

As a routine in most leagues world over, the three bottom-placed teams at the end of the season drop down to the second tier.

In the 2024/2025 Uganda Premier League (UPL), the trio of Mbale Heroes, Bright Stars and Wakiso Giants has been relegated to the Fufa Big League even before the end of the season.

The three teams go down with many promising talents and for the particular case of Mbale Heroes, its rich football history is on the line. This is a club that terrorized Kampala’s formidable teams, a side which used to produce top prospects for giant sides.

So, seeing Mbale going back to the drawing board does not bode well for the development of the sport, especially at a time we need countrywide representation in top-flight football.

FORMATIVE YEARS

For starters, Heroes started out as Gangama United in the early 1960s. Gangama stormed to the top-flight in 1975, and a year later, it had become a formidable side, finishing the 1976 top league in sixth position on the 12-team log.

To show their ‘arrival’, Gangama under the tutelage of Abdullah Majid, won the 1976 Uganda Cup title after defeating hot favourites Coffee FC via penalty shoot-out (4-2). At the time, they became the first upcountry side to win major silverware.

The famous team was dominated by youthful players groomed from schools like Mbale SS, Nkoma SS, Tororo College and Nabumali High School. These included goalie Rashid Bwire, Peter Wandyete, Sam Natulya, Charles Namakoola and Polly Kakidi. They teamed up with regular stars such as Abdallah Fit, George Osilo, Clement Baraza, Medeyi, John Akena and Jimmy Wepukulu.

For that Uganda Cup triumph, Gangama played in the 1977 Africa Cup Winners Cup but bowed out early at the hands of Malawi’s Bata Bullets.

CHANGE OF NAME

That very year, the team nosedived and got relegated to the second-tier league. This caused a hullabaloo as the majority of the players defected to Kampala and Jinja-based teams. Some officials and remaining players joined Mbale Heroes, which had vibrant young players like Paul Hasule, Geofrey Higenyi and George Otto, among others.

This group guided Mbale Heroes to the top-flight league in 1980. However, they just survived for two seasons and got demoted again. From then on, Heroes became used to the ping pong of top-flight and second tier until in 1995, when they returned to the top-flight in full force.

They managed to stay up for nine memorable years without facing relegation. The stability was attributed to the area politicians and sports administrators such as the late Hassan Wasswa Gakliwango and Zubair Galiwango, among others. This was evident in 1999 when Mbale Heroes, under coach Sam Ssimbwa, defied all odds and won the Uganda Cup title after edging Sam Timbe’s Lyantonde FC.

In fact, they ejected SC Villa on their way to this historical triumph. The Mbale area politicians who stormed Nakivubo stadium to watch the cup final promised earth and heaven to save the team from its financial hardships.

Unfortunately, nothing came up. The club was demoted in 2004 and stayed under the radar until the 2023/2024 season when it bounced back to the top-flight.

THE WAY FORWARD

Mbale Heroes’ relegation should not be just a concern of the club faithful but for the local governing body, Fufa, too. It’s not healthy for the game seeing community clubs like Mbale Heroes, the only top-flight club from the sub-region, get relegated, and it’s business as usual for the federation.

This is one area where Fufa looks shabby. A federation that is talking big about football development should find a way of giving community clubs an edge. I have no issue with institutional clubs but we all know community clubs contribute much more to football development, especially when it comes to roaring fans.

It’s also high time for Fufa to sit with the UPL sponsors and find a solution because what clubs are get- ting from sponsors is just peanuts. For starters, StarTimes and Fufa signed a 10-year sponsorship which has run for about six years. The entire package for each of the 16 UPL league sides is a miserable Shs 72m per season.

This money is supposed to come in four instalments of Shs 18m (and this does not come regularly). Comparatively, the lowest budget for each of these clubs is above Shs 600m. So, without more money coming from sponsors, clubs depend on gate takings, which is also laughable.

I watched Wakiso Giants against UPDF, and the match grossed a mere Shs 430,000. Imagine what the club was left with after operational expenses.