FUFA petition lacks substance - Aligawesa

By Umaru Kashaka  

The National Council of Sports (NCS) general secretary Jasper Aligawesa has asked legislators to dismiss a recent petition calling on the government to suspend all dealings with FUFA limited, saying it lacks substance.

He made the call Tuesday while appearing before the parliamentary education and sports committee to clarify on the legality of FUFA Ltd and also give his position on the state of Ugandan football.

Aligawesa noted that if the petitioners who are led by the president of Uganda Footballers’ Association (UFA) Daniel Walusimbi were FUFA members, they “would have known and followed the established avenues of resolving their issues through the General Assembly”.

“These so called petitioners are not FUFA members and the purported signatures appended to the petition are not genuine and were for a symposium of February 23, 2012 and not parliament. A proper petition should have attachments of the resolutions taken that time,” he told the committee chaired by the Pallisa County MP Jacob Opolot.

He added that players/footballers are employees of clubs and in this situation it should have been the clubs to petition.

“Footballers in Uganda as they want to be known don’t belong to only eight teams as reflected in the attachment; football is bigger and involves many more teams in Uganda,” Aligawesa argued.

He further stressed that the only body known to NCS which is in charge of the game of football in this country is the “Federation of Uganda Associations (FUFA)” and not “Federation of Ugandan Football Association” as it appears in the petition.

“Hon. Members, for the past four years the so called petitioners have gone to the courts of law, to the premier, to everywhere including the highest office of this country, but one wonders why they don’t win these cases against FUFA if there was substance in their petition,” he stated.

He said in August 2008, the General Assembly which is the supreme governing body of FUFA led Lawrence Mulindwa resolved to establish FUFA limited by guarantee and is owned by members as enshrined in the FUFA constitution.

“The directors/trustees are clearly defined in the memorandum and Articles of associations  which indicates that the directors are the members of the sitting executive committee of FUFA and their term of offices as trustees expires at the same time as their mandate as executive committee of FUFA,” Aligawesa said.

He explained that as trustees of FUFA limited by guarantee, the executive members do not own the company but bear the responsibility for creating and implementing policies for the company.

“A company limited by guarantee is formed for non-commercial purposes but aimed at giving the organization a legal entity. Guarantee companies thus generally serve as a profound, philanthropic purpose, serving the community or public at large through its altruistic endeavor,” Aligawesa noted.

Aligawesa also noted that despite the existence of the NCS Act, the mandate of the Council has never been fully implemented or been or been enabled.

“The Act as it stands today lacks the potency in terms of statutory instruments to enforce its mandate. It is 44 years now waiting for the statutory instrument to enforce the Act,” he explained.