Game between Victoria & Mubs last season
For the next eight months, the Pepsi University Football League (UFL), which started on Tuesday, September 17, is going to be raging on in different locations around the country.
This is the twelfth edition of the tournament, and it will be graced by 23 universities, all set to fight for bragging rights come May 2025, when the season ends.
So much focus is expected to be on Nkumba University, who won the championship earlier this year. It was the first time that Nkumba were winning this tournament in what was a dramatic 3-1 victory over another one-time winner, Uganda Christian University.
However, while the aforementioned teams will be among the favourites, including two-time winners Kampala University, Makerere University Business School, and Uganda Martyrs University Nkozi, the largely unfancied Victoria University aim to make their own mark this time round.
This edition will be the third time Victoria are competing in the UFL. Their debut campaign was in 2022. But they have not been able to make it into the knock-out stages.
“It is our main goal this time. This being our third year in the UFL should prove that we have grown as a team. Therefore, we should be more competitive than before because we have gained some experience now,” Noah Mugerwa, the Victoria coach, said.
The decision for Victoria to have Mugerwa as its coach could not have been more inspired. Back in 2017, Mugerwa was the assistant to coach Shafic Bisaso, when he guided Nkozi to its first UFL title. So, Mugerwa knows his way around the UFL and what it takes to win.
Notably, Victoria remains a young team going through its formative stages. Therefore, competing with teams that have played this championship since its inception in 2012 cannot be easy to achieve. But Mugerwa believes that with the knowhow of sports tutor Patrick Ssebuliba and the university management, that has put all they need in place, the sky should be the limit.
However, losing their talisman, midfielder Ibrahim Bbosa, who is graduating this week, is perhaps something they wish came a year later. Bbosa has been inspirational but is ineligible to play now. That responsibility will have to be taken up by the squad that remains eligible to play.
Victoria begin their group ‘B’ campaign against Makerere University at the main ground in Makerere. They are up against other universities including Kumi and Ndejje. On paper, this should not be a hard group since no team in it has ever won the UFL.
