SC Villa's legend Mukatabala explains why former Uganda stars struggle

Former Uganda international Paul Mukatabala has explained why retired players are struggling financially.

Mukatabala blames the low pay the retired stars were getting during their playing time as one of the major reasons for their struggles.

He offers that previous players must try and venture into coaching as a way to avoid such struggles.

“Pay in the ’80s and ’90s was little [between UGX 50,000-150,000] and players played for passion, also the cost of living was low, unlike today,” Mukatabala told Football256.

“The fantasy that Fufa must look after ex-players isn’t feasible because there many of them, instead, former players with abilities, must study coaching and administration, that way they will be assimilated into coaching and administration at clubs.”

Mukatabala, who is also the national team's coordinator, calls on the Federation of Uganda Football Associations (Fufa) to come up with policies to help the retired footballers.

“I also think Fufa should make it mandatory for all schools that play in school competitions to employ qualified coaches with priority given to former players and maybe the government can also help with funding an ex-player savings scheme," he concluded.

Haruna Kyobe, a shareholder at Vipers SC, has squarely blamed club officials for not having the players' interests at heart when they served their teams.

“Truth is, club officials used those players for their own benefits thus having nothing to show for apart from those who had a chance going abroad,” Kyobe told the same publication.

All these claims and suggestions comes a few days after Uganda great Jimmy Kirunda died on Monday and was laid to rest on Wednesday.

Due to his achievements both as a player and a coach Kirunda was a celebrated figure in the country.

Kirunda, who played for the three traditional Ugandan clubs, Express FC, SC Villa and KCCA FC, won numerous titles with those outfits as well as with the national team.

He turned out for Express from 1968 and left the following year to join the Kassasiro Boys. At KCC, as KCCA were known then, Kirunda spent 10 fruitful years.

He left for Abu Dhabi Sports in 1979 and played there until 1980 where he returned home to join KCCA and then SC Villa thereafter.

With the Cranes side, Kirunda won the Cecafa Cup in 1969, 1970, 1973, 1976 and 1977 as a player before registering success in the same competition in 1989, 1990 and 1992 as a coach.

At club level, Kirunda enjoyed a successful career, winning league trophies four times with different sides in 1976, 1977, 1981 and 1982.

He bagged three Uganda Cup titles, in 1980, 1983 and 1984.