“At the moment, it’s a 50/50,” underlined Uganda Premier League manager Paul Kabaikaramu, in response to whether the 2024/25 UPL Awards would be held, like the case has been in the past few seasons.
The last the awards did not happen was after the 2020/21 campaign, a campaign that was also marred by global pandemic, COVID-19.
That campaign, Express got crowned champions, after the league got cut short with four rounds to go, due to the same.
Over the past three seasons, they’ve been held, with brewing company Pilsner as the main sponsors. The latter haven’t formed part of the 2024/25 season, which has thrown the awards in shutters.
“The Awards were facilitated by pilsner, and this year, their contract expired. Awards are not cheap, you need about Ugx 100 million,” added Kabaikaramu, as he exclusively spoke to NBS Sport.
50/50 – A Ray Of Hope
However, Kabaikaramu stressed that there hasn’t been a lack of effort to ensure they happen, despite not having a sponsor designated for the event currently.
“There has been an effort internally to see that we have the awards. But I’m not in position to confirm whether they’ll be there or not at the moment. By the end of this week, I’ll be in position to answer. Right now, I can’t give a conclusive answer,” he added.
Past Winners And Current Hopefuls
Last campaign, SC Villa attacker Jonah Patrick Kakande got crowned the League’s Most Valuable Player (MVP), taking it up from Vipers SC’s captain Milton Karisa and Cesar Manzoki, who won it in the 2022/23 and 2021/22 seasons, respectively.
In the just concluded campaign, Vipers playmaker and assistant skipper Allan Okello has arguably been one of the most outstanding players, and would have a serious say if the awards got held.
Others, including NEC FC’s Enock Ssebagala, Vipers’ Karim Watambala, URA FC’s Ivan Ahimbisibwe would raise their hands as well, in contention for the MVP Award.
