FUFA explain how ‘extra fans’ got in

Jun 06, 2011

NAMBOOLE could have easily had a disaster due to overcrowding in the Uganda versus Guinea Bissau match on Saturday.

By James Bakama

NAMBOOLE could have easily had a disaster due to overcrowding in the Uganda versus Guinea Bissau match on Saturday.

Approximately 60,000 people were crammed into the stadium that has a capacity of 42,202. All the seats, walkways and part of the tartan were filled with what was arguably the biggest football crowd ever at the stadium.

FUFA vice president in charge of finance Anthony Kimuli said the organisers were overwhelmed by the numbers. He however said the federation printed only 40,000 tickets.

“Basing on the last Cranes match at the venue where we had 30,000 tickets, we this time printed an extra 10,000 tickets,” explained Kimuli. Out of this 3,600 tickets were issued out as complementaries to Cranes sponsors MTN, ministers, MPs, referees and ex-internationals.

Kimuli said players, FUFA delegates, the media, referees who used their identity cards for entry plus about 1000 security personnel and hundreds of fans who surged into the stadium after breaking the main gate, accounted for the extra numbers.

The stadium could also be accessed by special FUFA invites. These were however abused by some unscrupulous people who after entering would then pass them over to people outside the perimeter fence to also access the stadium. That those at the gates did not have time to cross-check the names on the invites with identity cards further fuelled this malpractice.

FUFA has a press conference today to announce how much was raised from the match. By yesterday Kimuli and other stadium officials were compiling reports from the various selling points in Kampala, Jinja, Mbale and Arua.

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});