{"id":63647,"date":"2023-12-29T18:16:21","date_gmt":"2023-12-29T18:16:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/?p=63647"},"modified":"2023-12-29T15:43:24","modified_gmt":"2023-12-29T15:43:24","slug":"arua-hill-in-dire-straits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/arua-hill-in-dire-straits","title":{"rendered":"Arua Hill in dire straits"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Uganda. <\/strong><\/span>Just a year ago, Joel Aita lit social media with an audacious claim that he was bidding to buy English Premier League giants Chelsea after it was snatched from Russian oligarch Roman Abramovic.<\/b><\/p>\n

But today, Aita, a self-proclaimed moneybag from West Nile, watched as Arua Hill suffered the ignominy of failing to travel with a full squad to Masindi where Kitara obliged the hapless overtures by thumping the Kongolo to pulp.<\/p>\n

Each of the eight players fielded could have left with a goal against their name in the 7-1 drubbing of a club that only recently sold itself as constructing a futuristic stadium in Arua City but now plays from a rented shamba in Adjumani.<\/p>\n

Aita, loud and flamboyant, is hardly heard from anymore. If players screamed in pain when being thumped, for Arua Hill, the screams would be all the fans would hear whenever they step on the pitch to honour their StarTimes Uganda Premier League obligations.<\/p>\n

He has made claims that he parceled out the club, quietly. To who?<\/p>\n

Rooted at the bottom of the 16-team table with five points from 13 games, Arua Hill is in such dire straits that even relegation might not save them.<\/p>\n

For the doomed trip to Masindi, Hadgi Sukuru, Wahab Gaddafi, Reagan Mpande, Musa Ssali and Safi Mansoor were joined by Wycliff Ahumuza and Noah Sabir.<\/p>\n

These boys needed a miracle and the team, whose coach Livingston Mbabazi had already fled for dear life, added Nelson Mandela \u2013 perhaps in desperate belief that the name would summon the spirits of the South African icon to scare Kitara even if just a bit.<\/p>\n

There was no such a thing. Football is not apartheid. The referee had to keep his ink busy jotting down names of goal scorers. George Ssenkaaba, Livin Kabon, Denis Omedi, Kipper Luwalo…<\/p>\n

It is as well that Arua Hill were only doing 218km to Masindi. Had it been a daunting 10-hour trip to Mbarara, half of the eight players they had in Masindi could have called for a toilet break and vanished.<\/p>\n

In only their third season in the topflight, the Kongolo were the envy of many clubs. They engaged in the battle of the buses on social media, their fabricated Tata bus, branded in leopard shed and club logo, could have intimidated the gods.<\/p>\n

But football humbles you. The bus is no more; it was last seen being re-fabricated by Jua Kali mechanics in August.<\/p>\n

Aita is quiet, Mbabazi quit, and no one seems to understand what the reported sale of nearly half of the stake in the club for Shs6.5b was all about.<\/p>\n

But the league fixtures know that the Kongolo have to host Express on January 3. Whether the eight players that endured the Kitara mauling travelled back will be seen in Adjumani then.<\/p>\n

The leopard never loses its spot but the Kongolo are.<\/p>\n

StarTimes Uganda Premier League<\/b>
\nThursday results<\/b><\/p>\n

Kitara 7-1 Arua Hill<\/p>\n

Bul 1-0 Busoga United<\/p>\n

UPDF 1-2 KCCA<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Uganda<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Uganda. Just a year ago, Joel Aita lit social media with an audacious claim that he was bidding to buy English Premier League giants Chelsea after it was snatched from Russian oligarch Roman Abramovic. But today, Aita, a self-proclaimed moneybag from West Nile, watched as Arua Hill suffered the ignominy of failing to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":63645,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,17],"tags":[233,240,234],"class_list":["post-63647","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-sport","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-uganda","tag-uganda"],"yoast_head":"\nArua Hill in dire straits - Uganda<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Just a year ago, Joel Aita lit social media with an audacious claim that he was bidding to buy English Premier League ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/arua-hill-in-dire-straits\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Arua Hill in dire straits\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Just a year ago, Joel Aita lit social media with an audacious claim that he was bidding to buy English Premier League ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/arua-hill-in-dire-straits\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Uganda\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-12-29T18:16:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/uganda\/sites\/34\/2023\/12\/sm_1703851938.77478.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/arua-hill-in-dire-straits#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/arua-hill-in-dire-straits\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Arua Hill in dire straits\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-12-29T18:16:21+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/arua-hill-in-dire-straits\"},\"wordCount\":509,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/arua-hill-in-dire-straits#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/uganda\/sites\/34\/2023\/12\/sm_1703851938.77478.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Uganda\",\"uganda\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"sport\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/arua-hill-in-dire-straits#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/arua-hill-in-dire-straits\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/arua-hill-in-dire-straits\",\"name\":\"Arua Hill in dire straits - 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