Today SC Villa the most successful club in Ugandan football started the process of registering its fans as members who will be joining the Villa Members Trust.
The process took place at Sheraton Hotel where many fans turned up to put pen to paper to show their support for the club and help it to drive to new direction.
Speaking to one of the biggest fans of SC Villa, Byaruhanga Abdullah commonly known as “Bilangi” he said “I am excited about this move by the club, I am now a member of the club that I have loved since childhood.”
“As Villa, we have had our ups and downs but slowly we are getting back to where we belong and hopefully with this registration of fans, we can go back to being the biggest club in the country” He added.
Mr. Joseph Kizito a member of the Interim Board while speaking to the press said that they had gone back to the drawing board, took lessons from the most successful clubs around the world and brought those ideas to SC Villa.
He noted that the era of individual ownership of the clubs is phasing out and that it was time to embrace the community to give the fans a sense of belonging with the club that they support.
“We need the numbers, we need the members and we need the ideas. SC Villa doesn’t belong to any single one or group of individuals, it’s for all of us” – Mr Joseph Kizito, Interim Board Member addressing fans and members of the press
“We want to make this as personal – that is why we are asking for all this information. Some of these info is not mandatory, but thale data that is allows us to identify, to know each other and to communicate.” Shawn Mubiru Club CEO on the registration process
“After here, we are drawing a road map to find the fan wherever they are – Nakivubo, Diaspora or at home – the office will be open and we will be doing outreaches on how to register.
“The team is ready, they are eager for the first whistle. We have a young squad and the our approach had been to give the coach free reign over his charges and they are all revving to go for the new season” He continued.
FUFA President Eng Moses Magogo also came to register as a member of the club and congratulated the SC Villa interim committee on steering the club back to the roots.
“Its very important for all Villa fans to understand and be part of this very important club,” Magogo said afterwards.
“Villa has always been in the hands of a few volunteers as the executive but the next step is for SC Villa to be owned by the members who have formed a trust that will own the assets that will determine even the leadership.
“This guarantees the prosperity of the club beyond the individuals, because these individuals are immortal, there is a time when they have to go or give their time to other things but whereby you have the members, they continue to own the club even 100 or 200 Years and this is the practice, it’s the same model at Real Madrid or Barcelona, and these are the most successful clubs in the world.
“The Villa fans have decided to own their club, and it has always been the case, only that we are formalising it, we are making it structural, to be what we are supposed to be. For us our strength, our competitive advantage is our numbers. Villa fans are loyal, they love their club, they pay. And we believe that its our strength.
Also, read: SC Villa: Back to Where It All Begun
