KAMPALA: FUFA has declared Express Football Club the Champions of the 2020/21 Uganda Premier League (UPL) following a decision by its Emergency Executive Committee that convened on Tuesday, June 29.
The decision comes after an imposed 42-days lockdown which put on hold sports activities including the Uganda Premier League with only four games away from conclusion.
“The FUFA Emergency Executive Committee has on Tuesday 29th June 2021 taken the decision to end the 2020/21 StarTimes Uganda Premier League based on Article 18, Section 1, Sub-section C & D of the FUFA Competition rules.” Reads a statement on FUFA website.
The FUFA top brass deemed it fit to end the season and thus evoke Article 18, section C and D of the Competitions rules which talks about such scenarios.
The Article stipulates that;
Where the league format due to circumstances of force majeure is not played to completion, the league winner shall be determined as follows.
c) Where at least one club has played more than 75% of the league games, the following formula shall be used by TOC (Terms of Conditions) to determine the league positions.
d) Total number of points earned from the number of games played multiplied by the total number of games supposed to be played divided by the number of games played.
This, therefore, means that Express FC who were top of the table on 58 points by the time the League was halted are declared Champions.
This becomes the seventh league title for the Red Eagles and their first since 2011/12 season which also earns them a ticket to next season’s CAF Champions League.
URA FC who were second on the Uganda Premier League table at the time the lockdown was imposed will represent Uganda in the CAF Confederation Cup.
MYDA FC and Kitara FC who had already been relegated are joined by Kyetume FC as the three teams that drop to the FUFA Big League.
With Arua Hill SC and Tooro United FC already securing promotion, one slot was still up for grabs and four teams that is Gadaffi FC, Nyamityobora FC, Blacks Power and Proline FC were all in contention.
The aforementioned teams had to go through a playoff and the winner earning the last promotional slot.
FUFA has indicated that they will wait for guidance from the National Council of Sports and the Ministry of Health on when and how the playoff games will be handled.
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