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Top scorer Hakim Musaba of Amus receives his accolade from USSSA president Justus Mugisha.
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For years, the national boys’ secondary schools football championship has long been the most top mark of secondary schools sports competitions than any other discipline in the post primary competitions category.
It has been a high level of talent exhibition, pulling crowds of followers and spectators attached to traditional performers, wherever it has rotated in different parts of the country that many schools resorted to doing whatever it takes so to identify with this championship since its inception in 1986.
It is a championship that has attracted all media, club scouts, parents following up schools where their talented kids are playing and above all, an event that left the business community with smiles on their faces after reaping in all aspects.
The 2024 event that climaxed at Masaka SS on Sunday, was not different from the past ones, where masses of spectators attended matches especially those featuring the home side Blessed Sacrament Kimanya, where business would come to a standstill on match days.
And the most likely St Juian High School Seeta emerged champions after outclassing fellow final debutante Amus College 3-0.
The St Juilan Vs Amus final came in a tell of events, where Amus had lost twice on the ground but won on paper before reaching the semifinal.
First, The Teso zone champions had been eliminated by Jinja SS 4-2 on penalties before petitioning and winning the 2017 champions for using an ineligible player so Amus was cleared to play the quarter finals aganst Jinja Progressive Academy.
The Jinja side emerged 3-0 victors and still Amus petitioned and won the petition after it was found out Jinja Progressive used an ineligible player too.
Amus went on to the semifinal against record winners St Mary’s Kitende, they won 10-9 on penalties, the longest of the kicks from the penalty mark in this championship, after a 0-0 normal time draw.
The USSSA boys' football finals action, Amus (while) takes on St Julian.
Meanwhile, St Julian, which had also gone through a number of failed petitions against them, eliminated fancied Bukedea Comprehensive 4-2 on penalties following a 0-0 draw to reach their maiden finale.
A tournament of petitions and why the petitions
The organizers Uganda Secondary Schools Sports Association (USSSA) came out with guidelines to help wipe out ineligibility that had rocked this championship for years.
The guidelines emphasized included age of U20, non-repeater, and legally transferred athletes from one school to another on top of the online registration of all the participants.
These, especially to do with age, got many schools on the wrong foot, as many beat the online registration to register ineligible players especially those surpassing the age limit.
And as the event reached the knock out stage, knocked out teams came all out with petitions against their tormentors, with the USSSA disciplinary and technical committee tasked to go through all and make decisions and while some were discarded for lacking evidence, others were upheld.
This is how Amus College reached the semifinals after having lost twice against Jinja SS in round of 16 and Jinja Progressive in quarter finals, before eliminating Kitende in the semis to reach their maiden final, while hosts Masaka SS had a failed petition against eventual champions St Julian, among others.
The Buddo SS Vs Bukedea case
Many football enthusiasts including the Buddo SS family did not get satisfied with the decision made in the Bukedea Comprehensive School Vs Buddo SS.
It came out when the Teso side petitioned Buddo SS after the 2018 champions had eliminated them with 1-0 win at the round of 32 but also the Buddo SS side lodged a petition against the petitioner each claiming usage of an overage player.
The committee decided to disqualify both for the offence, but Bukedea appealed the decision and from the appeals committee running signed by chairman and PES commissioner Rev Can Duncans Mugumya, Bukedea was reinstated.
The appeals committee reasoned that since the said player on Bukedea team had been at and used by Buddo SS last year, it was humanly wrong for Buddo SS to petition against him, a decision Buddo SS refuted, for they said they never used the player.
Richard Muhumuza has since come out to refute accusations of double standards from the losing petitioners and other followers of the event.
Director basic and secondary education Ismail Mulindwa, hands St Julian captain Isaac Kakuru the trophy.
“Whatever we decided was to do with the rules and regulations of the championship and where teams went ahead to appeal in the office above us, we could not make any rejections. So teams must know that these are the guidelines and must adhere,” Muhumuza said.
USSSA also did not act as had been communicated before the beginning of the tournament, that they would use police to apprehend the offending games teachers and school heads, an action that remained on the waiting.
And relegating the discontinued, to play classification games was another issue at hand that USSSA did not look at for an event aimed at kicking out ineligibility.
Part of the crowd that turned up for the quarterfinal game between Kitende and Kimaanya .
All in all, the Masaka event was only a wakeup call on USSSA’s ignited fight against ineligibility in secondary schools football.
