Plascon adds colour to Stanbic Uganda Cup, new format of play announced

By Martin Kaddu

There will be increased prize money to fight for when the 2020/21 Stanbic Uganda Cup gets underway on April 5.

This is after the tournament acquired a second sponsor –Kansai Plascon who unveiled a Shs132m two-year sponsorship deal on Friday at the company offices in the Industrial Area.

Accordingly, there is an increase of Shs34m in total prize money. The tournament winners will this year get Shs50m, an increase of Shs10m from the previous winners’ package.

The runners up will still take Shs20m, the semi finalists and quarter finalists have Shs12m and Shs6m at stake respectively while teams that bow out at the round of 16 have Shs3m to take home.

For the first time, the teams at the round of 32 will also get a share of the cash cake -amounting to Shs1.5m each.

“As Uganda’s biggest paint company, we are happy to be associated with Uganda’s biggest club football competition, the Stanbic Uganda Cup. We believe it will give us a platform to engage our consumers across the country and look forward to being able to grow the partnership,” noted Santosh Gumte, the Kansai Plascon managing director whose company also unveiled a Shs400m two-year sponsorship to reigning StarTimes Uganda premier league champions (SUPL) Vipers SC this month.

With Stanbic bank injecting in Shs300m annually as prime sponsors, FUFA third Vice President and minister of state for youth and children's affairs Florence Nakiwala Kiyingi believes that the sponsorship is further evidence that Ugandan football as a product is growing.

“Plascon sponsorship is going to make the tournament even more competitive. What we have been doing as FUFA is provide the necessary support to grow this product and I am happy that the fruits of our efforts are showing with this Plascon sponsorship,” noted Nakiwala.

In another change, this Stanbic Uganda Cup season will not be open to every football playing club after FUFA limiting the oldest football competition in the country to only 32 teams. Aisha Nalule, the FUFA competitions director says that the limitation of teams culminates from the covid19 situation in the country with many lower clubs not able to meet covid19 pandemic protocols.

“The Stanbic Uganda Cup is played across the country and across our league divisions from the First division to the Fifth division. Last season, we had a record 191 football clubs competing; with 157 playing in the preliminary stage across the eight football regions. However due to the government covid-19 restrictions that are still in place. This 2020/21 season competition will be played from the Round of 32 and will involve only the Premier League and Big League clubs,” revealed Nalule.

At the same event, the format for this season’s tournament was announced. “Also for this season, matches will be played home and away right from the Round of 32 except for the final which shall be a single leg tie at a yet to be confirmed venue,” added Nalule. Only prize money for the round of 16 was given out last season after the competition came to an end prematurely due to the covid19 pandemic.

With no winner last season, Proline remains the last club to clinch the Stanbic Uganda cup title after beating Bright Stars in the 2019 final played at the Masaka recreational center.