Uganda’s record time league champions SC Villa are facing into the barrel after booking their spot in the second round of the 2016 CAF Confederation Cup on Friday.
Villa completed a 5-0 aggregate thrashing of Zanzibar’s JKU FC, enjoying a 1-0 away win at Amaan Stadium, courtesy of a 46th winner from Ambrose Kirya, after sealing a 4-0 home victory at Namboole in the first leg.
The biggest hurdle now is the fact that Villa will face a tricky North African side -FUS Rabat of Morocco for a place in the play-off round of Africa’s second-tier club competition.
They have no money as a club to finance such a long journey north side after they left Kampala before dawn on Wednesday on a 1,700-kilometre road trip to Tanzania’s capital Dar es Salaam. A two-hour sea ride completed a marathon journey necessitated by a shortage of funds. Visiting 2010 Confederation Cup winners FUS Rabat of Morocco in the next round with more expensive air travel the only option is Villa’s worst nightmare.
More still, Ugandan clubs have always found it hard to match their North African compatriots on the pitch with almost all their previous meetings ending in thrashing for the East Africans.
Villa though made the finals of the Caf Champions League and Confederations Cup in 1991 and 1992, but their 11-year hiatus from the table of men has seen them steadily lose repute on the continent. They will hope corners are being turned.
