For many years, it’s was an elusive dream for the Ugandan national team and local football clubs to perform well at the international stage. This, however, somewhat came to an end in 2016 when the Uganda Cranes qualified for the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations in Gabon. It was the first time the national team was qualifying for this tournament since 1978.
The qualification and subsequent appearance in the Africa Cup of Nations in January 2017 excited and united the country. But that wasn’t the only big thing happening for local football at that time.
The last three years have seen the return of big money sponsors in to Uganda’s most famous and unifying sports activity. Several high profile companies have in the last three years injected some billions of shillings into the sport.
In October 2017, Airtel Uganda renewed its sponsorship of the Uganda Cranes, signing a four-year contract, worth Shs10 billion, with FUFA. The telecom giants will release Shs2.5 billion annually to the federation over the four years.
In the same month, MTN Uganda announced a year-long sponsorship for Onduparaka Football Club, with the telecom company agreeing to inject Shs390 million in the Arua-based club in 12 months.
MTN had virtually exited sponsorship of footballing activities in the country after losing its liaison with Fufa to rivals Airtel in October 2013.
Related
Meet Bowmans' Lawyers Advising Diageo in its USD 2.3 Billion Sale of EABL to Japan’s Asahi GroupBut that is not all. In July 2017, Telecom Giant, MTN Uganda inked a reported Shs1.2 billion three-year deal with Azam Uganda Premier League champions KCCA FC.
This is just a snippet of what is happening in Ugandan football. Over 20 companies are injecting big money in Ugandan Football. These include; Azam TV, StarTimes TV, DSTV, Roofings, Hima Cement, DFCU Bank, Prime Media, Britam, Betway, TopBet, Lato Milk, Soana Investments, Nile Breweries, Bidco Uganda Limited, National Insurance Corporation and Eco Bank among others. These companies are mainly investing in the Uganda Cranes and clubs plying their trade in the super league – Azam Uganda Premier League.
This drastic turn of fortunes is attributed to a couple of factors but mainly stability & steadiness at the Federation of Uganda Football Association (FUFA) under its current president, Moses Magogo, hands-on and forward thinking leadership of the Uganda Premier League (UPL) board and sacrifices made by private investors such as Lawrence Mulindwa of Vipers FC.
In an email, Arinaitwe Rugyendo, the UPL Board chairman, told the CEO Magazine that, for the first time in many years, Ugandan football is on a steady path to professionalism as highlighted by the increasing number of corporate sponsorships.
“Professional football means money. Without money, you cannot talk about a professional league and by extension, professional football. And without professional football, forget about AFCON and world Cup trophies. That is the rule of the game. Therefore, professional football needs big money. These wonderful new sponsors are exactly doing that to us. Their entry portends for the professionalization of Ugandan football for the very first time,
