Chris Mubiru received
a diagonal pass from Robert Luzze and riffled
a stunning shot into the top left corner. Moments
later, Luzze added another one sending the crowd
at Nakivubo Stadium roar in appreciation.
Uganda Commercial Bank (UCB) had just beaten
KCC 2-1 in one of the morning fixtures dubbed
"breakfast" games played back in 1985.
So when KCC whipped Maroons 4-1 recently in
a morning date, the two clubs were playing in
familiar environs they experienced in the '80s.
SC Villa, Express, Simba and Masaka are the
other Super League clubs that experienced breakfast
games.
But just how did the breakfast games come into
being? In 1985 there was a split in the Uganda
National Liberation Army (UNLA) which culminated
into widespread insecurity in Uganda as the
National Resistance Army (NRA now UPDF), pressurised
the Obote regime.
Owing to the bad security situation, most league
matches were postponed because before 3pm the
city would be deserted. The National Football
League Committee came out with the idea of having
some of the matches played in the morning especially
on weekends.
Teams would arrive at Nakivubo Stadium by 9a.m.
just after breakfast. Some of the matches that
were successfully held included UCB's 2-1 win
over KCC, Bank of Uganda's (BoU) 5-1 thrashing
of UCB and Nsambya's 4-1 rout of BoU.
On one bright Friday July 27, 1985 morning,
a match between Tobacco and BoU was being played
out. The match was being held the morning before
the big derby between foes KCC and Express.
Tobacco were leading 1-0 when Okello Lutwa's
faction of UNLA stormed Kampala en route to
overthrowing the Obote II government.
Soccer fans had to flee in different directions
as gun-fire rocked Nakivubo. Tobacco players
had to travel back to Jinja but on the way back
their vehicles were grabbed by the Obote's fleeing
soldiers leaving players stranded.
Each player had to find his way back home on
his own, in the ensuing confusion Ismail Taban
one of Tobacco's players was killed.
The Express, KCC match was never held. Soccer
fans who had bought tickets in thousands that
morning lost their money; when the fans eventually
asked for their money from stadium after some
days the only answer given by the stadium manager
John Odyek, and by the two clubs was that the
money was looted.
Up to date, nobody actually knows who looted
the money but your wild guess could be as good
as mine.
bzziwa@ugandaobserver.com |