Joseph Mutyaba was recently sacked by Bright Stars
The 2024/25 Uganda Premier League season may record a significant turnover of sacked coaches in Ugandan football history.
As of last week, the league had gone just seven rounds, but six coaches have been already sacked with Joseph Mutyaba the latest tactician to face the axe at Bright Stars.
Mutyaba, who was yet to win a game this season, was replaced by football pundit Ian Mutenda, but before the sacking of the former Uganda Cranes star, a number of clubs had parted ways with tacticians. These include Vipers SC, who discontinued the services of Serbian Nikola Kavazovic, while newly-promoted Lugazi United sacked Sadick Sempigi.
Mbale Heroes dismissed Richard Malinga. Meanwhile, Express sacked Baker Mbowa and Kitara FC parted ways with Brian Ssenyondo. Ssenyondo’s sacking was quite a surprise. Ssenyondo helped Kitara to the 2023/24 Uganda Cup title, and the team narrowly missed winning the 2023/2024 league title.
It is understandable for teams to sack coaches, especially when results are not going their way as it was for the aforementioned names. Just imagine on many occasions clubs fail to fulfill their contractual obligations to players or coaches and when their clubs underperform, they turn to coaches as a scapegoat.
But in the past, a number of coaches were sacked in spite of guiding their clubs to major titles. In many of such cases, discipline, egos and higher ambitions played a major part. Take the example of George Mukasa, who, despite leading SC Villa to league and Uganda Cup titles in 1982 and 1983, was sacked at the end of the 1983 season.
Then there is Moses Nsereko, a legendary player for KCCA FC who played a significant role in helping them win several major titles. As coach, Nsereko prominently contributed to KCCA’s three league titles (1981, 1983 and 1985) and four Uganda Cup trophies (1979, 1980, 1982 and 1984). However, when the club experienced mixed results at the start of the 1987 season, Nsereko was forced to hand in his resignation in February, 1987.
As for Polly Ouma, he joined SC Villa in 1986 as the club hunted for silverware after a luckless 1985 season. In his first season in 1986, Ouma guided the Villa Park side to the first league and Uganda Cup double. He also helped win the 1987 league title plus the Cecafa club championship in the same year.
That, however, did not stop SC Villa from replacing Ouma with Geof Hudson. This took many by surprise but the club’s reasoning was that they were aiming to conquer the continent. Meanwhile, Tom Lwanga helped KCCA win the 1990 Uganda Cup and had just won the 1991 league title when the club bafflingly replaced him with Barnabas Mwesiga.
And who will ever forget how Express belittled Jimmy Muguwa! In February 1995, Express FC appointed Muguwa as head coach, replacing David Otti, who had crossed to SC Villa. Muguwa went on to create history when he helped the club win its first league and Uganda Cup double that very season.
As the club faithful were still basking in the glory, Express went ahead and replaced Muguwa with Serbian tactician Dragon Popadic. If that was a surprise, then Paul Hasule’s departure from Villa was shocking. See, in February, 1998, Villa signed Hasule to replace Otti. He guided SC Villa to the league and Uganda Cup double in 1998.
The Jogoos went on to win the 1999 league title and repeated the double in 2000. Hasule was not done and he added the 2001 league title. But out of the blue in 2001, the club cancelled Hasule’s contract.
The most recent shock sacking was that of Miguel Jorge da Costa at Vipers SC. Signed in March 2017, the Portuguese tactician helped the Vipers win the 2017/2018 league title. He also contributed to the club’s in the 2018 Uganda Cup final but that couldn’t stop his sacking at the end of the season.
bzziwa@observer.ug
Source: The Observer
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