Poor pitches faulted as UPL quartet fails to skip first hurdle

URA was one of the top tier teams that were knocked out of the Uganda Cup at the Round of 64 | URA Image

UGANDA CUP Poor pitches faulted as UPL quartet fails to skip first hurdle

Brian Aheebwa • 07:24 - 08.02.2023

If proper evidence is gathered that they intentionally failed to honour the fixture they will be disqualified from the tournament amongst other sanctions.

Four Uganda Premier League teams did not go past the Stanbic Uganda Cup round of 64 that climaxed on Monday this week.

URA FC, Arua Hill SC, Maroons FC, and Gaddafi FC bowed out at the initial stage and Proline FC director Mujib Kasule has blamed it on the poor pitches.

“Credit to the underdog that managed to progress at the expense of UPL teams,” Kasule started while speaking to Pulse Sports.

“But I believe that the poor pitches played a part in the failure of some top teams.”

“Yes most of the grounds in Uganda are poor but there are those that are worse off, especially those that are not fit to host UPL games but are used for Uganda Cup.”

“Because even those teams that advanced struggled for example last year's finalists Vipers SC and BUL FC were almost dumped out,” he added.

URA were ejected by Kitara region side Uganda Pentecostal University 4-3 in the shootouts following a 2-2 entertaining stalemate in Fort Portal on Monday.

Arua Hill failed to go past the round of 64 for the second consecutive time after they were defeated by North Eastern region side Elite FC 2-1 in penalties after a 1-1 draw after 90 minutes in Lira on Sunday.

Maroons and Gaddafi were eliminated on Thursday last week 2-1 and 1-0 by Kampala Region side Kisugu United FC and Buganda Region outfit Kiyinda Boys FC in Bugolobi and Mityana respectively.

Meanwhile, another top-flight outfit Busoga United FC failed to honour their fixture against JLOS FC in Kitgum.

On matchday, reports indicated that Busoga's bus broke down on their way to Kitgum but this website later found out that they did not travel completely.

“That case is before the judicial body and all we are waiting for is the hearing before we make the official communication and I am certain it will not take long because soon the draws for the Round of 32 will be made,” FUFA competitions director Aisha Nalule told this website.

If proper evidence is gathered that they intentionally failed to honour the fixture they will be disqualified from the tournament amongst other sanctions.