March 18, 2022
The Uganda Premier League, which for sponsorship reasons, is also known as the Star Times Uganda Premier League, consists of 16 teams who play each other home and away for a 30 game league season.
The national league was first established in 1968. Kampala based Villa FC have won the most titles ( 16 ), whilst the next three most successful clubs have also come from the capital, Kampala City ( 13 titles ), Express FC ( 7 ) and Uganda Revenue Authority with 4. Also on 4 titles are Vipers SC, who are located in Wakiso, a suburb of Kampala, about 10 miles north-west of the capital.
Despite the size of the country, the 16 sides in the UPL this season are, by and large, situated in the major urban centres, with 7 sides in Kampala/Wakiso, 4 sides in Jinja ( a city on the shores of Lake Victoria, 80km east of Kampala ) , two in Mbarara ( Uganda’s second largest city, 270km south-west of Kampala ), two in the northern town of Arua ( 475km north-west of Kampala and close to the borders of both Congo and Sudan ), with United Peoples Defence Force in Bombo, just over 30km north of Kampala.
The Uganda Premier League is ranked 20th best in Africa, which entitles one side to enter the CAF Champions League and one side into the CAF Confederations Cup. The national side are currently 84th in the FIFA World rankings, just above Uzbekistan and Georgia, and in January they drew with Iceland and beat Moldova in friendly matches in Turkey.
The 2020/21 season was abandoned in June 2021 with 4 rounds of fixtures still to be completed as the country went into a Covid Lockdown. After a run of 7 consecutive victories Express FC led the table by one point and were declared the champions and enter the CAF Champions League where they were eliminated on away goals by Sudanese side Al Merrikh. After 2-1 home win, a 0-1 loss in Khartoum saw them eliminated.
URA were the runners-up and became Uganda’s entrant into the CAF Confederations Cup, where they eliminated Ethiopian side Ethiopian Coffee 5-2 on aggregate in the first round with home and away wins, but were eliminated 0-1 on aggregate by top Egyptian side Al Masry in Alexandria.
Vipers finished in third place a further point behind URA, and their national striker Yunus Sentamu, who won the Albanian title with Tirana and has also played for Finnish side Ilves Tampere, was the division’s leading scorer on 13 goals. Vipers have gone on to be table toppers this season.
Today’s game was a match between the top two sides from last season. Express, who were founded by United Express Newspapers in 1957, have made a disappointing defence of their title. Although they had lost only three matches, two of which where the opening two games of the season, they went into Round 21 in 6th place in table, 15 points from the top and on a run of 6 matches without a win, although 5 of these had been drawn. Perhaps the telling statistic was that only 7 matches had been won, and Coach Wasswa Bbosa, who had won a first title for the Red Eagles since 2012 was sacked in mid-February. Interim coach James Odoch is yet to win a game.
The Express squad for this Kampala derby included two players selected in the most recent national squad. Defender Enoch Walusimbi has 5 caps and midfielder/winger Martin Kazza has 11 caps
Home is the Mutesa II Stadium in the Wankulukuku suburb of Kampala, which amazingly has an official capacity of 20,202. The ground has one small covered terrace, with some uncovered terracing either side, with grass banks surrounding the rest of the pitch. There didn’t appear to be any seats in the ground. Safety standards in the UK would probably limit the maximum attendance to a couple of thousand ! Express played their CAF Champions League match at the modern St Mary’s Stadium in Entebbe….
Visitors URA, who not unsurprisingly are also known as the Taxmen or Tax Collectors, were in third place and on a run of just one defeat in 18 games. Despite this, they had only one player in the Ugandan squad, striker Stephan Mukwala, who has 7 caps.
The temperature at the 4pm kick-off local time was touching 25 degrees on a sunny day.
Mukwala blazed over a good chance for URA in the third minute, and after Express defender Ssekyembe could only put a difficult chance over the bar in the 25th minute, URA took the lead three minutes later. Express keeper Otim made a smart save to deny Mandela, but then flapped at the resulting corner, and giant centre-back Mbowa turned the ball back towards the goal, where two defenders got in each other’s way and failed to stop the ball from crossing the line.
URA probably deserved their half-time lead but Express were much better in the second half. First, Akandwanaho forced a flamboyant diving catch from keeper Alionzi, then midfielder Ivan Mayanja, who was given the man of the match award, struck the post with a bobbling long range effort, with Akandwanaho putting the rebound inches wide when it looked easier to score. Shortly after, Ssebagala skipped inside his marker and drilled a shot narrowly wide from just inside the area.
A deserved equaliser finally arrived 18 minutes from the end when Akandwanaho dummied a low cross for top scorer Eric Kambale to take a touch to beat centre-back Madela to the ball and then fire home from 10 yards to move to 7 goals for the season.
Express had chances to win the game in added on time, but after a fine run by Akandwanaho, his cross was just behind Kambale, who despite an acrobatic effort was unable to get a decent contact. A minute later, Martin Kizza cut in from the right wing and sent a stinging left-footed shot goal wards but it was straight at keeper Alionzi, who made a confident save.
Overall, Express were the better team and probably should have won this game. However, as a result, they slipped slipped to 7th in the table, and URA remained in third, albeit now 10 points behind Vipers.
Express FC : Otim – Lumu, Ssekyembe , Walusimbi – Byamukama, Ssegebala, Mayanja, Shabene – Kambale, Musiige ( Kizza ), Akandwanaho
United Revenue Authority : Alionzi – Ndahiro, Mandela, Mbowa, Mulikyi – Kagimu ( Fezali ), Kyeyune, Sserubiri ( Nkuubi )– Ssekajugo ( Juma ), Mukwala, Abang
Highlights : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFEss6ySqGI
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