The Federation of Uganda Football Associations (Fufa) has agreed to share the Coronavirus testing costs for the teams that will participate in the Fufa Big League play-offs as football resumes.
The agreement between the federation and the clubs was reached at during a consultative meeting that was held at the main offices in Mengo.
“The different club representatives in attendance shared their respective ideas and by the end of the meeting, it was agreed upon that Fufa would cost share the #Covid-19 testing costs with the clubs, meet the accommodation, feeding of the team players and officials as well as provision of medical services for all the teams during the matches,” said Fufa president Moses Magogo.
Some of the SOPs from government and the Ministry of Health for football to restart include playing behind closed doors, regular social distancing, masking and sanitizing as well as quarantine of the teams (one-off tournament setting).
Edrine Ochieng, the president Gaddafi Football Club, was one of the several chairmen that welcomed the development.
“The consultations between Fufa and the clubs is good enough. It shows the element of fair-play. With Fufa coming in with the cost sharing aspect, we are humbled.”
Clubs further called upon Fufa to continue engaging the government to reduce the cost of the Covid#-19 tests from Shs240,500.
Joseph Collins Ssemanda (Ndejje University) suggested: “If the sporting merit fails to determine the promoted clubs, then the club licensing measure should be considered to determine the prepared clubs in case football cannot be played.”
Kitara FC will clash with Kataka FC while Kiboga Young FC will face Ndejje University FC in the play-offs semifinals to find out who joins UPDF FC and Malaba Youth Development Association (MYDA) FC in next season’s Uganda Premier League season.
Fufa Technical Center, Njeru has been confirmed as the venue for these play-offs.
The Fufa Competitions Department will release the detailed program and exact dates for the play-offs.
Tentatively, the play-offs for the StarTimes Fufa Big League clubs kick off date has been set for November 10.
