Pool Club stripped of title over match fixing

Mar 13, 2015

Pool Association of Uganda (PAU) has stripped Ntinda Pool Club of the 2014 League One title for their involvement in match fixing.

By Samson Opus

Pool Association of Uganda (PAU) has stripped Ntinda Pool Club of the 2014 League One title for their involvement in match fixing.


Ntinda, who won the promotional League One last year, were implicated in match fixing during the campaign.

The club fell in hot soup after Red Shooters Pool Club of Masindi reported the matter to PAU.

A committee of inquiry that was instituted January found Ntinda guilty basing on phone recordings from a telecom company on November 23, 2014.

In their submission, Red Shooters provided the committee with another evidence of an SMS message from one of Ntinda players requesting the club to pay them money for a decisive fixture against Boat Pool Club.

‘Boat beat Icon yday, so they need todayz game, so its up to u.’ the text message read in part.

Though the Masindi club failed to honour the advances, Ntinda went and lost the crucial match to boat.

While Boat Pool Club was not implicated in the affair, the committee concluded that the negative result could have been meant to punish Masindi for refusing to cooperate.

Turning point


A positive result for Ntinda would have kept Masindi in the promotion zone in the league.

Announcing the verdict at Lumas Arena on Wednesday, PAU chairman Farouk Kisuze who chaired the inquiry committee further accused Ntinda for bringing the sport into disrepute.

Besides missing out on promotion to the Senior Pool league, Ntinda has a heavy penalty to pay. They have to return the trophy, medals and a sh1m cash prize.

The club was also docked of all points, meaning they stay at the basement of the 16-team table standing.

And when the new season gets underway, Ntinda will have to start with a deduction of nine points.

“PAU regards match fixing very strongly as extremely detrimental to the development of sport. The proceedings and verdict of this case should serve as a precedent for the management of future match fixing cases,” Kisuze stressed.

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