With four days left to go until the first leg of the first phase of the 2024/25 CAF Champions League preliminary round between SC Villa and Commercial Bank of Ethiopia, the Jogoos have been dealt a major blow.
Last week, the StarTimes Uganda Premier League champions seemed to have secured Mandela National Stadium Namboole as their Champions League home but that has taken a twist.
According to the UPDF Engineering Brigade who are the stadium renovation contractors, Villa against CBE comes too early for Namboole to host.
“Villa hosting CBE from here is a lie, there no team that is going to play from here at the moment because Namboole is still under renovation,” the project Engineer, Lt Col Eng Peter Seku Kidemuka told the media on Tuesday.
“No team has been allowed to play here that is just a rumour. They can’t come and destroy what we still working on. As you can see the running track is still wet.”
“I am the contractor and I have not heard anything about the game on Saturday, maybe if the organisers have allowed but where will they pass?”
“Unless you tell me that a chopper will drop them directly into the pitch and later pick them,” Kidemuka joked.
In an effort to understand what next, NBS Sport contacted Villa’s Public Relations Officer (PRO) Asan Kasigye.
“As far as I am concerned we are going to play at Namboole on Saturday,” Kasingye told this reporter in an interview.
“We addressed a letter to Namboole requesting for the stadium and also visited the facility through the subcontractors before we received an acceptance letter.”
“That is how we made it public knowledge and stated the financial terms for our supporters.”
“I personally saw the running track and unless the latest has been addressed to the club CEO William Nkemba who should have told me by now, we are playing at Namboole on Saturday,” former Assistant Inspector General of Police noted.
Meanwhile, NBS Sport reliably understands that when Kitara FC’s request was rejected, Villa’s proposal too wasn’t taken into consideration.
Kitara have since travelled to Libya where they will play both the first and second leg of the first round of the first phase of Confederation Cup against Al Hilal, Benghazi given that the alternative request to play at Viper SC’s St. Mary’s Stadium, Kitende was also rejected.
Whereas, Kitara wasn’t successful in both attempts to play at Namboole and Kitende, on the other hand, Villa was set to play at Kitende before the Namboole development came up.
