SC Villa fanatics will rue their barbaric acts at St Mary’s Kitende last Saturday after the Fufa competitions disciplinary panel ordered for the deduction of two points and two goals from their club.
Coach Wasswa Bbosa described the punishment as a detrimental step to their ambitions of winning a first league title since 2004.
For breaking down the VIP wing at the stadium during their 1-0 loss to Vipers, the 16-time league champions were further fined Shs1,000,000, their goalkeeper Samson Kirya banned two games for threatening referee Alex Muhabi while their manager Muhammad Jumba was slapped with a four-month touchline ban. “It was a heavy punishment that has affected the spirits of our players.
Many teams like Express and Vipers have had crowd violence before but have not lost points,” Bbosa told Daily Monitor yesterday.
The deduction – if implemented – will mean Villa’s seven points in four games will be trimmed to five which pulls them out of the top four positions. Having scored three goals and conceding two this season, Villa will now have negative goal difference after the two-goal deduction.
“I see some politics in the decision but we are focused on winning our next game against UPDF at Masaka. We had made our calculations for the points we want in the first round but see we have lost five points in just one match,” he added.
Basing on reports by the match referee, assessor, video and photographic evidence, the committee invoked article 30.14 of the Fufa competitions rules to award the Jogoos the punishment.
Bbosa questioned why referee Muhabi was not penalised because of ‘suspect’ officiating.
The Committee gave Villa a chance to appeal within 48 hours of receipt of the communication if they feel dissatisfied with the decision but its chairman Deo Mutabazi revealed they had yet to file in any in the first 24 hours.
“They still have their time (up to today) and in any case they appeal we shall forward the matter to the Fufa Disciplinary Committee,” Mutabazi said.
