Former Fufa referee Richard Kimbowa believes football administrators are to blame for the growing habit of match fixing in Ugandan football.
Kimbowa, a medical doctor who currently lives in the United States and was officiating in the Uganda Premier League until the end of last season.
Speaking to Uganda Fan TV, Kimbowa was reacting to Fufa’s recent statement on banned persons with match officials comprising the biggest number.
“It is a sad development but referees go a lot of hardships which could influence their behavior,” he started. “I think we (referees) are very marginalized amongst all the football stakeholders in Uganda yet we are the most important in the game,” he revealed before expounding.
“You can imagine, a referee invests in becoming top in his profession but when it comes to payments, they are the least catered for.
“The payments are very little and never come on time in Uganda and even facilitation like on match days rarely comes on time.
“We see a lot sponsorship deals by the leagues or federations but rarely do we hear referees being talked about yet the referees buy themselves everything right from their match day kits, whistles, pay fees to train etc. but when it gets to payments, its peanuts.”
He gave an example of the recent sudden death of Peter Kabugo while on duty and the attention saying it would be different if it was an administrator or footballer.
Kimbowa is a victim of alleged match fixing and was once suspended for two years but he was never given reason for Fufa’s action.
However, he says some of these decisions are out of malice and also questioned some of the verdicts.
“If we have referees, footballers and administrators are banned, what happens to the clubs that benefited from such. We saw Juventus being demoted for such but here, nothing happens.”
Kimbowa also sent scathing attacks on referees’ bodies who promote persons based on personal interests and not merit something that explains that why at the moment, Uganda hasn’t sent referees to top international tournaments like Afcon and world cup among others.
You can watch the FULL interview HERE
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