KCCA and Vipers butt heads over Andrew Kawooya

League champions Vipers are claiming ownership of attacking midfielder Andrew Kawooya who recently joined rivals KCCA FC after signing a four-year contract.

According to Vipers director Haruna Kyobe, Kawooya still has a running contract with the club and they intend to involve FUFA in the matter.

"Kawooya signed a four-year minor contract with Vipers in 2018 and it's now left with two years. Since he is young, the laws tell us that his parents have to consent with that and that's what we did when he was agreeing to terms with us," stated Kyobe.

"Kawooya has been one of the assistant captains for the youth team (Vipers junior team) last season and he even took part in the junior league. All the players that join St Mary's Secondary School, Kitende on bursary because of their talent, have to sign minor contracts with the guidance of their parents or guardians present.

In one of the clauses of the contract, after one completes his studies at the school, the first priority is to play for Vipers because we have invested a lot of resources in them. In our academy, if some of the players we have are below 18 years, we call their parents and we sign contracts with them just like we did with Kawooya," he added.

The exciting player who is currently a senior five student at Kitende impressed during the AFCON U17 finals played in Tanzania in 2019.

KCCA however is adamant the club abided by the prevailing laws to sign the player.

"When we put in a request to have the player, we were told that he has no contract with Vipers so maybe he had it with the junior team sometime back. We have heard that there are those who are not content with his move to KCCA but everyone has a right to petition FUFA in case they don't agree with what was done. We don't want to be involved in misunderstandings and if we knew that Kawooya had issues, we would have walked away from the deal," noted Moses Magero the KCCA PRO.

The youngster joined Moses Kalanzi, Juma Balinya, Ashraf Mugume, Charles Lwanga, Mazengo Loro, Denis Iguma, Bright Anukani, Brian Aheebwa, and Samson Kigozi as the club's new signings ahead of the new season.