Court Blocks Opening Of New Uganda Premier League Season

The High Court in Kampala has temporarily stopped the 2014/15 Uganda Premier League that was scheduled to start on Tuesday next week.

kcca in recent action
kcca in recent action

This follows a temporary court injunction that was obtained by one of the aggrieved football clubs, Maroons Football Club, last evening through its lawyer John Isabirye. The Federation of Uganda Football Associations (FUFA) officials were absent when the injunction was issued.

Maroons FC raised a red flag of being unfairly excluded from taking part and yet it has never been relegated to a lower league.

The injunction, issued by the Deputy Registrar of the court Charles Emuria, will stay in place until the issues raised by Maroons FC are heard and determined.  The hearing of the main suit of Maroons has been fixed for September 2 this year.

The court said the costs will abide in the main application though in the main suit, Maroons prays for punitive damages due to the alleged reckless conduct by FUFA that they say has embarrassed them in public.

Maroons’ petition against FUFA and its officials was as a result of alleged breach of the contract it had with them to play in the top flight football but the team was instead excluded from the new fixtures under unclear circumstances.

Further in its complaint, Maroons states that in the football season of 2012/13, two parallel football leagues, Uganda Super League and the FUFA Super League, were created and that a deed of adherence was signed by it to play in the Uganda Super League and indicating how clubs would be relegated to the lower league.

It further complains that to its shock, FUFA and group started engaging in talks to merge the two parallel leagues by forming the Uganda Premier League which had been scheduled to start on Tuesday but they had been excluded.
The 2012/13 champions to that effect, on August 13 this year, wrote to FUFA demanding to know why they had been excluded from the new season without any lawful excuse given the fact that they were missing from the match fixtures.

But in its response dated August 25 this year to the chairman of Maroons FC, Tommy Ochen, FUFA Chief Executive Officer Edgar Watson stated that Maroons was not eligible to play in the Uganda Premier League as it was not among the clubs that stayed in the top tier or those promoted from FUFA big league in the season of 2013/14. Watson added that besides it had not been included in the electronic registration already submitted.

Watson instead advised Maroons to start afresh by registering to participate in the Big League, which is a much lower league compared to the Uganda Premier League.

About Post Author