2012 Associate Tutu Fellow Arinaitwe Rugyendo has been appointed Chairman of the Ugandan Football Super League. He takes over from Hajji Abbas Kaawaase, whose term had expired. Although he says he has relatively little football administration experience, Rugyendo represents The Saints Football Club and been part of the Uganda Cranes initiative, which raises funds for the national team.
The change in leadership may also have been prompted by the country seeking a new direction in the leadership of the national sport after a standoff between the Uganda Football Association (FUFA) and the Super League (FSL). The standoff arose after FUFA withdrew the FSL's mandate of running the league, citing improper management of sponsorship funds from TV. This led to Azam TV holding back their payments for the 2015/16 season. In a new arrangement, FUFA and the FSL will share the income from TV.
Rugyendo has said that he will work to bring transformational leadership to the position. Football the world over brings in significant amounts of money in endorsements, sponsorships, TV royalties and in pay to budding players. Rugyendo said that football is also a place to nurture young talent and harness it. It can employ hundreds of thousands of people and Africa has a chance to grow an industry that can provide jobs to its unemployed youths. It can also brand nations, build a culture of teamwork and nurture discipline. It is also a game that can give hope to the downtrodden, the neglected talented Africans that dot the slums areas of our cities who, once identified, will end up in paid leagues abroad. He has in mind the kinds of opportunities that football giants like Brazil, England, Spain, Nigeria, South Africa have provided and what football has done to their economies.
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