Africa-Press – Uganda. On The Spot:
Fufa president Hon. Eng. Moses Magogo is never far from controversy. Over the past months or so, the criticism against his stewardship of the local football body has grown as he moves towards earning a third term as Fufa president unopposed. In a comprehensive interview with Sunday Monitor, he explains how he got into the current and how he plans to get out of it while describing himself as an “administration genius”. Our reporter Denis Bbosa brings you the excerpts.
Why do you think the public outcry against you and Fufa is growing?
Glory be to the Almighty Allah for the gift of life, wisdom and health that have enabled me to achieve so much.The fact is I am a star performer of a team that has achieved so much but you are saying the public is calling for the retirement of such a captain. Who is the public? There is not a true football fan that wants the best player to be substituted.
We live in a world of sabotage, malice and propaganda. The handful of architects of these machinations are just envious and jealousy about my person and selfish not to be financially partaking of this success story. By propaganda, I mean the actions to confuse the unsuspecting public that is eventually drawn into individual fights out of ignorance of the achievements, my personal input and where we are coming from.
The internal football stakeholders are cognizant of the challenges the game is still facing but are much more aware and happy with the achievements registered and that is why they will continue to support my leadership. Apart from a few selfish individuals, the rest are not undertaking any active role in football.
Despite all that, you are always seen as unaccountable. Why don’t you submit this accountability publicly?
Allegations of embezzlement are unfounded and have never been substantiated. With misappropriation of funds, I guess you mean prioritisation of financial resources.
Fufa runs on a budget approved by the General Assembly. For Government funds, requisitions are approved by National Council of Sports (NCS) while other funds are upon activities approved by either Fifa or Caf. Besides, the various football success stories are a result of appropriate utilization of the revenues.
Accountability is a chorus song of the ignorant in an attempt to discredit my person and Fufa. If there is one area that my administration has improved on is management and reporting of Fufa finances.
In 2013, Fufa had a volunteer Vice President in charge of Finance without any qualified personnel in the department, operating on a manual paper system and with a lot of cash transactions.
Today, the Fufa Finance Department is composed of six full-time qualified personnel (two with ACCA). Requisitions and transactions are now electronic and real-time reports are produced by the Sun Systems Application. My administration introduced a zero-cash policy at Fufa. Periodically finance reports are produced for the relevant bodies to analyse and advise.
These include the Fufa Internal Audit (weekly), Fufa CEO (Monthly), Finance Committee (Quarterly), Executive (Quarterly), Government-NCS (Quarterly), External Audit (Annually), Fifa Central Audit (Annually) and the General Assembly (Annually). We also publish our annual financial statements in the print media for public consumption.
I wish to also inform you that Fifa tracks each dollar through International Auditors appointed by Fifa for all its 211 Member Associations and Fufa has been performing annually with flying colours. Fifa stops funding immediately it notices any misappropriation of the funds. We also undergo forensic audits by the government and always come through it with flying colours.
I would then wish to learn on how previous administrations and other organisations considered to be accounting manage this song of ‘accountability’.
Still on accountability, you do owe players money and you have used this office to enrich yourself. Why aren’t players paid in time to start with?
These are envious people. What is wrong with Magogo being rich? How is that a problem of anybody whose shilling I have not taken? Many rich people today have a past. Being rich is relative. I think I am not rich but I can afford to live a decent life which is satisfying enough for me. The people quoting my wealth are blind about who I am. I am an Engineer by profession.
Show me any Engineer who is not living the life I live? I worked with top world organisations for about 15 years before I quit. I started earning seven-digit salaries as soon as I finished school. I joined Fufa when I was driving new cars and owning a football club in my 20s. If I may ask, what would be the professional charge for my brains for transforming Fufa from Shs4b to almost Shs40b annual budget?
Back to the question of paying players, it is ironic that many detractors attempt to convert my strengths into weaknesses. It is during my administration that players started earning real-life changing money. Some players have earned up to almost Shs400m each for just an Afcon campaign. As we speak now, no player is demanding any monies from Fufa apart from the Uganda U-20 Team that reached the Afcon Finals in Mauritania early this year.
You have presided over two Afcon qualifications and now the recent failure and described the football as ‘shitty’. In the aftermath, you criticized players and some retired. How did we get here?
Let us start by putting the record straight. Under my eight-year administration, Uganda National Teams have qualified for 10 Caf final competitions, thus four for Chan, two for U-17, one for U-20, one for Sand Cranes and two for Uganda Cranes at Afcon. We won seven Cecafa titles; two for Senior Challenge Cup, two for U-17 (Boys), one for U20, one for U-15 and one for U-17 (Girls).
We also went to Mauritius with the U-17 Girls and won the Cosafa women’s tournament by beating powerhouse South Africa in the final. We have also had a club in the Caf Champions League and Confederation group Stages for the first time in the history of Ugandan football and also Champions of Cecafa. Uganda hit its highest ever Fifa ranking (62nd in the World in 2016) and Uganda Cranes named the Caf Team of the Year in 2016.
If this is described as abysmal then show me any one better than my administration in Ugandan football history who has achieved this in just a period of eight years.
The problem is excitement and an appetite to find fault by some people. Before we proceed, check the meaning of “shitty” from the most correct English dictionary called the Cambridge Dictionary.
Nevertheless, whatever the meaning you want to attach to the word, it was a description of the football played by the national team at Chan having been given the best-ever preparations and motivations in allowances and bonuses structure then we end up conceding five goals in one match. When did Uganda last concede such goals? This is unacceptable. It is not just the goals but how the team was unbothered before, during and after that tournament.
About the retirement of players, it is normal for players to retire. Great players like Majid Musisi (RIP), Hasule (RIP), Jackson Mayanja, David Obua, Ibra Sekagya and Geoffrey Massa retired. So, what is special with these retirements? Hassan Wasswa had not played club football for a while and was no longer with the national team, Mike Azira and Denis Onyango had asked to play for Afcon 2021 then retire after and they just lived to their wishes. Immediately after the Malawi game, these players wanted to announce retirement and we advised them to get past the immediate emotions of failing to qualify before they decide. We tried to convince Dennis to finish with the 2022 Fifa World Cup Campaign and he refused while in Malawi. We thought he would change his mind but unfortunately, he has not. My belief is that there shall always come the better after each one of us. .So it is not in my culture to abuse anyone, not even my own children. I instead described the football played by the Chan team using Cambridge Dictionary English.
Your second term as Fufa President ends in August. You are unopposed in this election after blocking Mujib Kasule and Allan Ssewanyana. Why are you afraid of competition?
Too many questions in one. I have said I made a decision to seek the third term of a four year mandate from the 34 members of Fufa. I have made my choice; it is now the members of Fufa to choose. The Electoral Laws were made about 10 years ago when I was not President. My administration has never made any changes in the Electoral provisions.
Fortunately, you mention Mr Kasule who was part of the Fufa team that made these rules. I think these rules have caused stability at Fufa that has resulted in sporting results. We have not received any member asking for amending these rules.
About the persons named if they can manage, I welcome them and many more others to present their programmes and it is the voters to decide.
Football has always peeped where national decisions are made. It was a strategy for football that many of us joined politics and many football persons have won elective positions at various levels. It is time for football to be debated in a forum where decisions of national priorities and allocations are made.
My administration has built football to take-off stage. It is suicidal at this stage to deploy a novice as a pilot when we have the tried and tested person in Moses Magogo, more so who will be part of the debate to allocate national resources. It is called ‘Match-Fixing’ in football when you substitute an in-form and injury-free Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal and Juventus superstar) so that the opponents can also score and win the match.
Now that you have gone to Parliament, how will this benefit football whether you continue as Fufa president or not?
It will be to the benefit of football if I rise to the floor of Parliament and I speak about the game when I am the president of Fufa. We have a duty to explain and position sports as a tool to socio-economic transformation of our society.
Bright Prospects. With inspirational skipper Denis Onyango having hang up his gloves, Magogo maintains that the future is very bright for Ugandan football with several new talents emerging up like the U-20 Hippos. PHOTO/EDDIE CHICCO
We need to carve out a professional sports sector that will employ more Ugandans and also tap into the range of the US$600b global sports economy. After this, then prioritisation of sport in the appropriation of the national budget will make sense consequently the funding of sports, infrastructure and modern laws will be achieved.
And what do you consider your failures during your tenure?
I prefer to define them more as challenges than failures.
Professional Club football in Uganda has responded so slowly to our designs and stimuli actions. We would have preferred to have clubs that make football income to employ and handsomely pay the professional football human resource.
We have not yet achieved the penetration of the mass game to each of the villages of Uganda not only to further popularise our sport but also to identify hidden talents.
The level of infrastructure, equipment and facilities is still wanting.We have not conceptualised and applied science and technology for sporting, medical and broadcast purposes to create football products that can generate revenues.
These challenges are the ones that have motivated me to stand for the 3rd Term as football in Uganda Takes off from the runway we have delivered since 2005.
You have been successful in the corridors of Caf and Fifa. How does an administrator get from here to there and what is your take on the new leadership of Dr. Patrice Motsepe compared to Ahmad?
You should realise that I am a football administration genius. I combine too many attributes. I am a brilliant person who was an A student throughout school and College. A graduate Engineer who worked with 4 major world corporate organisations for a period of 15 years. I am a Fifa-trained Football Administration Instructor. I played football from the lowest levels to the highest in Uganda save for the National Team.
I have administered football from the lowest rank to the highest office in Uganda and now continental. I am a typical football fan known by football fans from my teenage days supporting Sports Club Villa. I read and write about football as a hobby. I am passionate about football. You are going to struggle to ever get one person with such ingredients.
President Ahmad is a personal friend and he watched the historic match of Uganda vs. Comoros in Namboole on the September 4, 2016 when Uganda went back to Afcon after 39 years even before he got elected as Caf President. When he got elected as Caf President in 2017, President Ahmad saw my extraordinary abilities and appointed me to the Caf Executive as the first Ugandan ever and later in 2019 I got elected for a 4-year term ending 2023.
I met President Gianni Infantino when he was still the General Secretary of Uefa and we got along on a personal level and I didn’t then ever know he would be Fifa President. When the opportunity arose and he presented the best programme for football, it was a no-brainer for Uganda to support him.
President Motsepe is a football man. He has a huge appetite to turn around African football. He brings along a lot of other attributes that African football desires at the moment. The beauty is that he listens to me a lot and I feel my contribution to African football transformation will be more under his leadership than before.
It is to Uganda’s benefit that we have a member of the Caf Executive. There are already many benefits we have obtained as a country. The practice at Caf is normally that when you are no longer an FA President, you are most likely going to lose your Caf seat too. I think as Uganda we still need this rare seat.
Huge benefits
What are the financial benefits of being Fufa president?The Fufa presidency is a voluntary job that ordinarily should attract only a few suitors. There is no stipulated salary for a Fufa president.
However, the office is entitled to Shs633m annually from the budget passed in the last general assembly held in October 2020 at Silver Springs Hotel. There is no available breakdown of this sum.
Under Hon Eng. Moses Magogo, Fufa’s annual budget has grown from Shs4b in 2012 to today’s Shs36b. It’s projected to rise to Shs40b next year.
Fufa’s Shs36b expenditure and income (in Shillings)
Fifa operational grant – 6,577,800,000Fifa projects grant – 2,692,680,000Fifa Solidarity grant – 1,140,000,000Caf grant – 4,180,000,000Government – 11,917,940,881Sponsorships – 8,171,000,000Others – 1,416,333,000
Expenditures
Administration – 4, 861,160,000Communications – 1,362,266,250Competitions – 2,874,925,000Football development – 4,118,500,000Governance – 1,355,280,000Infrastructure – 2,910,130,000Marketing – 2,049,000,000Membership – 1,650,000,000National teams – 13,496,117,461Fufa President Office – 633,200,000
More tangible benefits
“By getting elected one is guaranteed of instant popularity nationally and outside Uganda. The president is entitled to routine paid up Caf and Fifa trips with allowances,” ex Fufa official Haruna Kyobe emphasizes.
For Caf and Fifa events, the president, one of his deputies and the chief executive officer (CEO) usually represent the country. They are entitled to business class travel.
In addition, Magogo has penetrated Caf and Fifa corridors. He is in the former’s executive as the in charge of beach soccer and futsal.
Almost all the sponsorship deals here are endorsed by the Fufa president. Whereas the CEO runs the federation secretariat, the president’s hand is visible in all aspects.
Lately, the Fufa president security detail has been beefed up with about two trained police escorts.Compiled by, Denis Bbosa
