Fufa TV Cup: The good, bad and ugly

Nabumali High School won their 11th match of the campaign, 3-0 against Nganwa High School Kabwohe, to become the second winners of the competition after St. Mary’s College Kisubi (Smack).

We bring you the good, bad and ugly from the competition.

Top scorer meets his mother

Nabumali might be champions but the impact of television in reuniting families could be the little publicized but significant story of this competition.

Lango College and tournament top scorer Yasin Obonyo had never met his mother before the competition. Scratch that! The Senior Three student had no idea that the woman he has called “mom” all his life was actually his step mother.

A conversation with his ‘step’ brother led him to put one and two together and he started nagging his father about the truth. His relationship with his father was also not the best because the “old man did not want me to play football.”

Obonyo has severally received beatings for trying to express his talent. A coach at his community playground urged him to join Lango College, where he would get a bursary and he has since been playing in a safe space.

When the Fufa TV Cup was expanded from eight to 64 teams this year, Lango was included and therefore Obonyo had to appear on television representing the school that gave him a lifeline.

His father’s friends told him during one of his visits to a bar that “they had seen his son scoring goals on television” (against Dr. Obote College Boroboro in the Round of 64). Seeing his son on television pushed him to go and watch play (against Comboni College in the Round of 32).

A worried Obonyo was surprised to see his father embrace him at the end of the match and “promise to show me my mother.” To his surprise, a lady he had built a connection with whenever she came to sell fruits at the school turned out to be his mother.

“I do not know if she knew but those are conversations we will have as we continue to connect,” Obonyo, who actually had to be convinced to leave his mother’s home to compete in the Giant 8 stage of the competition in Njeru, said. To forgive his father and mend their relationship, Obonyo saluted in his celebration for his semifinals’ goal in the 3-1 loss to the eventual champions Nabumali “to show all was good between us.”

Nganwa teacher embraces marketing

Rona Ayinembabazi joined Nganwa as a teaching assistant in her Senior Six vacation two years ago. She was asked to help the school with their public relations and the Fufa TV Cup has brought her talents even further to the fore as she has needed to promote their entire journey from the preliminary round of the competition in June.

Opportunities to play

If anyone wanted to know how widespread competitive football is in the country, the Fufa TV Cup offered that evidence by giving 64 traditional schools from 12 sub-regions in the country an opportunity to compete in the competition.

Just 11 of the schools that took part in this competition also took part in the longstanding Uganda Secondary School Sports Association (USSSA) boys’ football tournament in Masaka in April.

And all those 11 were asked not field more than three players that had played in the USSSA competition, which has largely been dominated by private schools.

The competition has now given an opportunity to Fufa to unearth new players and coaches and also offer more games to the referees they are educating through various capacity building programmes.

The bad

Kibuli

Kibuli SS was probably the most popular football school in the competition and was seen by many as a favourite. But it failed to win any of its home games in the Round of 64, 32 and 16.

Smack

The 2023 champions Smack shocked everyone when they failed to travel for their opening Round of 64 match against St. Balikuddembe SS Mitala Maria in Buwama.

Apparently Smack had followed St. Henry’s College Kitovu’s lead in pulling out of the tournament before its start. Smack turned up for their home leg in the tie and won 3-2 but after losing the first leg 3-0 by forfeiture, that was the end of their journey.

Mbarara SSS and Mbarara HS did not also honour their fixtures in the first round.

Pioneer schools

Mengo SS was the only one among eight schools that started this tournament in 2023 that got to the Giant 8 stage but was also embarrassed there.

Jinja College and Namilyango College made the Round