Africa-Press – Uganda. The High Court of Uganda at Mbarara led by Justice Nshimye Allan Paul on Thursday lifted a ban on the recently halted Ankole Districts Cup Tournament, giving it a go ahead.
This after both parties the aggrieved Bushenyi officials and the tournament’s organisers agreed harmoniously at no cost that the tournament resumes.
According to David Kamukama, the lawyer of Abomugisha Sports Venture (organisers of the tournament), organisers and Bushenyi officials were advised to reconcile for the future of the regional football tournament.
“The judge advised us to agree harmoniously for the betterment of the tournament, we agreed to allow the tournament continue, today the judge signed on the agreement and football fans are excited, their competitions are going to start from where they stopped,” said Kamukama.
He added “Since court has lifted the ban that means the tournament organising committee is going to sit and make a clear timetable in which the remaining games will be played. There is no longer argument between parties, we did not wait for court to decide for us, we made reconciliation decision on our own and only took agreement letter to court for signature and no costs were charged,”
Egidio Mucunguzi, the vice chairperson Ankole football tournament organising committee, says they are excited regional tournament officials after court lifted ban on the halted tournament stating that this is after several agreements that they had with Bushenyi which was the aggrieved side in the case. He thus calls for harmony in the next games.
“We are happy today because our districts tournament will resume soon, I thank the side of Bushenyi for loving football and being good people, we met several times and agreed to let football lead, there is no side that has won or lost but it is only Ankole Football that has won, fans have been waiting for this good news and I am sure they are excited too,” he said.
“I pray that we let football lead than always engaging in unnecessary arguments, we are going to meet people from the participant districts and agree on how and when we shall resume, I am sure in a period of one week we shall release fixtures of the remaining games starting from the quarter final match between Rubirizi and Buhweju which had not been played, then we proceed with semi-finals, vibe is back and I hope we shall enjoy,” Mucunguzi added
Also, Apollo Kakongi, an organising committee member of Bushenyi, says they had no to wait for the final court’s ruling but to agree as Ankole football lovers for their tournament to resume, he thus advises tournament officials to call tournament stakeholders for them to understand the clear rules of the competition.
“Later after court order suspending the tournament, organisers appealed and recently Judge invited both of us and advised us to reconcile for the beauty of Ankole cup, his concern was that if we waited for court to decide we would maybe see football banned completely and which would not be good because court’s ruling favours only one party, in our consent there is nothing like costs, we agreed this is for the love of football, we said that before the season ends, they call for stakeholders meeting and discuss on the basic rules of the tournament,” he said
The Ankole Districts Cup Football Tournament started in June with 13 districts and is now headed for semi-finals with teams like Sheema Ntungamo and Mitooma with a remaining quarterfinal game between Rubirizi and Buhweju.
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