Recently, at SC Villa, we witnessed a scene that should have sent shockwaves at Fufa. Instead, it was met with a deafening silence. Omar Ahmed Mandela literally walked into the club presidency unopposed, not through a wave of popular support, but because the process was engineered to ensure no one could stand against him. Let’s call this what it is: a farce. But my problem isn’t just with Mandela. My deepest concern, the thing that keeps anyone who loves this game awake at night, is the regulator. Fufa just sat there and watched. They watched a man treat one of the country’s most historic institutions like a personal asset, and they did absolutely nothing. In doing so, they have failed, not just Villa, but the very concept of corporate governance in our model clubs. Look around. Villa has not held a general assembly or offered a shred of accountability to its members in four years. Four years! In that time, Mandela unilaterally decided the president’s tenure wasn’t long enough and extended it. Then, to really seal the deal, he slapped a non-refundable Shs 100 million nomination fee on anyone daring to challenge him. It is absurd. Granted. I highly doubt Mandela even paid that fee himself. If he wants to prove me wrong, the floor id his. I dare him to publish that banking slip. Let the members see where the money came from. Because this isn’t about democracy; it is about ownership. He carries SC Villa like it’s a briefcase he picked up along the way. That’s why he felt he could move the club’s base to East Hight School without blinking an eye. It is his property to move, isn’t it? And let me clear up the titles. The de facto CEO of SC Villa is Mandela, not William Nkemba. When a club president involves himself in the day-to-day running: Signing of expenses and handling operations, you don’t have a CEO. You have a puppet. A club president should be the guardian of the vision, not the office manager. Villa isn’t alone in this mess. Express is navigating its own choppy waters and KCCA isn’t exactly a shinning beacon of stability. These aren’t just any clubs; they are legacy institutions. They are the pillars of Ugandan football. So, Fufa needs to understand something; protecting these clubs isn’t a favor to the fans. It is in their own keen interest. If these giants lose relevance, the whole league suffers. Look at Sudan. They understand this instinctively. Clubs like El-Merriekh and El Hilal aren’t just teams; they are protected as national treasures. The federation there knows that if those giants fall, the entire ecosystem collapses. By letting Mandela do so as he pleases at Villa, I feel Fufa have let down the club. And one day, people will realize that Mandela is a certain kind of businessman, what I would call a charitable capitalist. He gives with one hand, but he takes more with the other. He invests, but he extracts control, relevance and ultimately, the product itself. The question is: by the time everyone figures that out, will there be a club left to save? Fufa, the silence is deafening. Speak up, or watch the heritage burn. The author is a football investor and SC Villa President EmeritusThe post Fufa’s silence killing the soul of Ugandan football appeared first on The Observer.