Former Assistant Inspector General of Police Asan Kasingye has hit the Federation of Uganda Football Associations (FUFA) president Moses Magogo over the marketing of Ugandan players, the state of local football and the role of fans in supporting the domestic game.
The dispute followed reports that Vipers SC had sold midfielder Allan Okello for Shs4.4 billion, prompting Kasingye to question why Ugandan football has struggled to secure similarly lucrative international opportunities for its players.
“We need to learn how to market our players in Uganda. Football is a multi-business venture but we’re on 1% battery power,”Kasingye said.
Magogo, however, challenged that argument, saying the growth of Ugandan football also depends heavily on the support given to local competitions by Ugandans themselves.
He argued that fans who spend more time following foreign leagues than domestic competitions contribute to the financial challenges facing local clubs.
“Ugandans have failed to understand that those foreign leagues are an extension of imported services. You find top personalities in Uganda singing praise of foreign leagues,” Magogo said.
The exchange later turned personal after Magogo appeared to challenge Kasingye to a televised debate.
Kasingye questioned why Magogo wanted the debate now, recalling a confrontation between the two in 2022.
“You want to debate me on TV? Really? Am I now worthy of your audience? In 2022, you called a press conference at Imperial Royale and embarrassed me before journalists. Then you dismissed them,” Kasingye said.
He said he had previously asked Magogo to allow journalists to hear his side of that dispute but that his request was not granted.
“I requested you to allow the press come in so that they can listen to my side too. You ignored. Now, you want to debate me on FUFA TV?” he said.
Kasingye also rejected suggestions that his criticism of FUFA was driven by an interest in becoming federation president.
“You think I am interested in your chair? Forget it. Listen to our views. If you don’t find them worthy, dismiss them as so. If you find credit, implement them,” he said.
Kasingye maintained that supporting international clubs does not amount to undermining Ugandan football, saying he can support Arsenal while also supporting local clubs such as SC Villa.
“If, however, you feel that I should stop supporting Arsenal because I also support SC Villa and work on executive, you know who to call so that he can fire me,” he said.
Kasingye said a televised debate would give him an opportunity to raise questions about the management and commercialisation of Ugandan football.
“On the TV debate, I will ask one question. Someone should prepare answers,” he said.
Among the issues he raised was an allegation concerning complimentary tickets allocated to Ugandan football officials during the 2018 World Cup in Russia.
“One Ugandan official was given complimentary tickets for local Ugandan football officials during the World Cup in Russia, 2018. They were instead sold to Europeans. Is this the support for local football?” Kasingye asked.
He also revisited the case of Jimmy Kulaba, a Uganda Police player whom he claimed was transferred to a Kenyan club without the knowledge of his club.
Kasingye said the matter dated back to 2011, when he was serving on the FUFA Club Competitions Committee.
“Since originally the issue was about selling our players to international markets, I will ask about who sold Uganda Police player called Kulaba Jimmy to Kenya without the knowledge of the club when I was in charge of the Club Competitions Committee of FUFA in 2011,”he said.
He further referred to what he described as an INTERPOL file concerning alleged corruption involving the Uganda Cranes in Marrakech, Morocco.
“I will also remember how the INTERPOL file about the corruption scandal involving the Cranes in Marrakech, Morocco looked like. Someone is disturbing the peace of a former senior Police officer,” Kasingye said.
Uganda continues to grapple with the challenge of turning its football talent into a stronger commercial product. FUFA has previously acknowledged the need to develop football as a business, with its own publications highlighting areas such as player identification, infrastructure, coaching, sports science and technology as key to improving the game.
Kasingye has also remained an active figure in Ugandan football. FUFA records list him among the representatives of StarTimes Uganda Premier League clubs, while he has previously served in leadership roles at Police FC and was the spokesperson of SC Villa before resigning from the position in March 2026 following a dispute over the club’s presidential nomination fee.
The exchange therefore revives a longstanding debate within Ugandan football over whether the country’s biggest problem is insufficient support from fans, weak commercialisation of local competitions, or shortcomings in the way football and players are managed.
For Kasingye, the priority is clear: Ugandan players must be marketed aggressively enough to attract major international opportunities.
“The enemies of Ugandan local football are not those who support Arsenal, ManU, Liverpool or Chelsea. They are those who run Ugandan football,”he said.
