Fans start voting for Uganda's best footballers

Uganda football fans can now start voting for both their best Male and Female Player of the Year after the respective codes for the voting criteria were released by the FUFA Awards Committee.

The four categories that will be voted on by the fans include the Airtel-FUFA Male and Female Players of the Year, Fans Ugandan Favourite Player and Fans' Favourite Player in leagues outside Uganda.

The mechanism for voting is type FUFA leave a space, input the code and send to 8888.

During the awards night on December 1 at Speke Resort Munyonyo, a total of 11 awards will be handed out, with the male and female footballers of the year driving away in a car.

This will be in addition to a $5000 (sh18m) fully paid trip to Dubai and Mombasa respectively for both players courtesy of new co-sponsors and travel agents Round Bob.

Cranes and former KCCA FC striker Geoffrey Sserunkuma who currently features for Buildcon FC in the Zambian league leads the nominees for the Male Player of the Year alongside former team mate Muzamir Mutyaba and former SC Villa midfielder and current Vipers player Tadeo Lwanga.

Airtel's Remmy Kisakye (5th R), FUFA's Rogers Byamukama (front C), awards chairman Dennis Mbidde (back C) and FUFA's Esther Musoke (4th L) and other sponsors' representatives at the launch of the awards at Serena Hotel earlier this month. Photo by Michael Nsubuga

Last year's female player of the year, Kawempe Muslim and Crested Cranes striker Hasifah Nassuna is back on the nomination list alongside Olila High School's Vanessa Karungi and Fazila Ikwaput who also plays for the national team.

The codes for voting are 10, 20 and 30 for Geoffrey Serunkuuma, Muzamir Mutyaba and Tadeo Lwanga respectively while the ones for Nassuna, Karungi and Ikwaput are 50, 60 and 70 respectively.

The other categories include FUFA best 11, FUFA Presidential Award, FUFA Fair Play Award, FUFA Upcoming talent, FUFA Referee of the Year, FUFA Coach of the Year, FUFA Beach Soccer Player of the Year.

The candidates for the male and female footballer of the year categories were nominated by all the 16 coaches of the 16 clubs playing in the Uganda Premier League while the nominees from the other categories will be announced when the voting is completed, apart from the presidential, coach and referee of the year.

The awards are sponsored by Airtel, Round Bob, Azam TV, Nile Special, NIC, BUL, Ecobank, FUFA FM and SMS ONE.