Abdulmalick Vitalis Tabu has been slapped with a disgraceful misconduct charge of two match out of football after the catastrophic blunder and could cost him a chance to earn a ticket to Afcon 2017 finals with Uganda Cranes.
The talented winger dismayed Express fans by his ‘silly’ celebration before visiting fans and showed them the middle finger in the late stages of the famous Kampala derby which ended 3-2 for the Jogoo on October 29, 2016. The result was hooliganism from the angry Red Eagles by hurling Namboole seats in the direction of the field.
His mother club SC Villa’s Chief Executive Ivan Kakembo confirmed receiving the communication from local football governing body Fufa’s disciplinary committee and would not appeal the decision.
But the fact the Fufa committee’s chairman Hilal Hussein so openly ignored the disgraceful gesture from Vitalis towards the Express crowd based on the merits of the video evidence from the AZAM TV footage that went viral on social media puts Fufa in a negative spotlight.
As a result, several club officials complained about Vitalis Tabu involvement in the proceeding games against table leaders KCCA (lost 1-3 on 01/11/2016) followed by an away match in Lugazi against URA (drew 2-2 on 06/12/2016) and most recently a 2-0 win over relegation threatened Kirinya Jinja on 10th December before the League went into recess.
In well functioning federations, players and coaches normally face anxious waits of just after 24 hours or slightly to learn if they face no or further action from the Football Associations after receiving reports from the game and that are reviewed for justification and clarity.
From there, it will be decided what, if any, action will be taken against culprit, even if already facing disciplinary measures.
In Uganda, it is probably better to delay decisions on actions of top clubs’ players which bring the game into disrepute, which are threatening, abusive, indecent or insulting.
