VAR: Magogo gets a hero’s welcome back to office! No, offside
Yesterday at about this time, FUFA president Moses Hashim Magogo and his teammates were celebrating around the corner flag, dancing like Roger Milla and others backflipping like Julius Agahowa.
Yes, Magogo had netted (literally), in the dying minutes of the game, and the goal would take Uganda back to the World Cup (if you know you know).
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Surrounded by members of his team, the technical bench, the financial bench, the team doctors, ball boys, and kit boys, Magogo celebrated the goal and pointed to the sky, huh, it is done right?
Magogo had been serving a 60 days’ ban on the sidelines, having been implicated in the illegal sale of Brazil 2014 World Cup tickets allocated to Uganda, a case he pleaded guilty to in exchange for a light sentence from FIFA.
"The Independent Ethics Committee has ratified the plea bargain entered into by Mr. Moses Hassim Magogo, President of the Federation of Uganda Football Associations and member of the Confederation of African Football Executive Committee, and the chairperson of the investigatory chamber," a statement from FIFA read.
He was consequently suspended from footballing activities for two months and fined Shs37m.
So, Magogo used available channels to bargain his way out of the case, probably because he stood no defence against the accusations and simply because there was truth somewhere.
The First Lady and Minister of Education and Sports wrote to the Inspector General of Government to investigate the case of Magogo further, however, the IGG who had just been appointed to the court of appeal claimed she was ‘here and there’, and no able to ‘handle new matters’.
November 6, private citizens Friday Kagoro and Kavuma Kabenge acting through Muwema advocates petitioned the Auditor General for an investigative audit into FUFA and Magogo over the expenditure of public funds.
These claimed that there was no accountability for over Shs100b received from the central government since 2013.
19 days later, they received a response that there will not be investigations into FUFA and Magogo as advised from the Solicitor General (that letter was signed by a one J B Suuza)
Magogo’s triumphant celebrations with his clique come just days after we witnessed the anti-corruption walk. Hence his triumphant entry back to the office, supported and cheered on by many is a wrong message, a completely different agenda from that which the country wants to take.
Notwithstanding, Magogo has been a terrific manager, a good team player and an achiever per se, he is arguably the best person to have sat at that Mengo office.
However, there was no need to celebrate his return, it should have done quietly, without raising dust or kicking the corner flag because according to the VAR check: it was OFFSIDE.
The writer is a private contributor to the Nile Post
