By Silvano Kibuuka.
Vipers SC have joined SC Villa, Express FC and Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA), the Uganda teams that have won both the domestic super league and Uganda Cup trophies the same season.
SC Villa (a.k.a Joggos) has achieved this six times becoming the longest achiever and believably the strongest club that has existed in Uganda.
The Blues started on the mighty supremacy in 1986 under coach Polly Ouma, 1988 and 1989 under Germany coach Geoffrey Hudson, 1998 and 2000 with the late Paul Hasule and in 2002 with Serbian tactician Micho Sredejovic.
Express FC (a.k.a Square Pass) earned the double (commonly known as Ssalongo in the local Ganda language) in 1995 when the late coach Jimmy Muguwa who also played for the team before was the coach.
In 2017, Mike Mutebi also won the first double for KCCA FC (a.k.a Kasasiro Boys), the team he played for and coached on two occasions.
2023 has been the year of Vipers SC with the lucky coach Alex Isabirye who never played for the team but joined it three months towards the end after it’s biggest shareholder, Dr. Lawrence Mulindwa sacking Mexican Beto Bianchi appointed on January 10 2023 and terminated after 157 days for lukewarm performance.
This was the third attempt of the Vipers SC (a.k.a the Venoms) to grab the double.
Vipers failed to do so in 2018 and last year (2022) when they won the league.
Lucky Isabirye:
Despite working hard, Isabirye, one of the new coaches in the Ugandan space, was considered by the Vipers management as the best and went ahead to buy out his contract from BUL FC for which he had won the Uganda Cup knock out trophy in 2022.
Winning the league first of all was miraculous though the club had placed itself among the top three contenders along with SC Villa and KCCA FC.
Actually, Isabirye lost a game with his former club BUL FC to square with KCCA FC at 50 points each with a game to go, greatly neutralizing the chances of Vipers SC winning the super league trophy.
At one game to seal off the 2023 Star Times Super League, SC Villa was the favorite as they were ahead with 51 points, meaning that winning Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) at any result would have earned them the trophy.
And in order to capture their latest crown, Vipers needed a crucial result to go their way and it was SC Villa’s 1-0 defeat to Uganda Revenue Authority SC that made all the difference.
A victory for Villa would have confirmed a seventeenth Premier League title and the club’s first since 2004 but the Jogoos could not get the job done due to goal shyness and URA’s Najib Fesali heading in a free kick around the hour mark for the only goal of the match against the hosts that had gathered fans from various parts of the country to mark the Wankulukuku stadium blue.
FUFA and the Uganda Premier League LTD that organize the league made a deliberate move to end the competition at the same time to evade match fixing.
Isabirye was also at his home ground, St. Mary’s Kitende hosting Busoga FC.
They walloped it 5-0 score courtesy of two goals from Abubakar Lawal as well as goals from Yunus Sentamu, Martin Kizza and Bright Anukani for a sixth top division title.
Vipers ended the season level on 53 points with Kampala Capital City Authority FC but took the trophy by virtue of having a better goal difference.
KCCA FC also beat Bright Stars 5-0 to end with 53 points.
UPL officials kept the trophy out of Wankulukuku and St. Mary’s Kitende was at least five minutes to the final whistle when they unleashed it at the latter, the home of the winner.
The road to the double started by Isabirye’s Viper SC beating Bright Stars 4-1 in the semi-final before ejecting Police FC 1-0 in the final match at Lira Akii Bua Stadium.
Milton Karisa scored the maiden goal in the first half to earn the club he returned to in the 2022 season after leaving it in 2018 to play for the Moroccan outfit Moulodia D’oujda, a side he joined on a two – year contract and scored four goals in 22 appearances.
He is also the captain of the team and a starter at the Cranes senior team in the AFCON qualifier campaign.
Isabirye has also won the UPL player of the month of May, the month he won the Super league.
“I believe I am a lucky coach. My role is to encourage players to do their best and also assure them that a footballer should exploit his talent despite his age. I instill discipline in the players and tell them to do what they don’t want on the side of training. Nobody wants to come in time, train extra and others. But if you do what you don’t want, you excel in football,” Isabirye said.
About his future on the team whose stalwart has always believed in foreign coaches, Isabirye says he is still with the Vipers SC.
“I was given a contract of two years and have so far spent only three months. And there was no binding close of staying depending on how many matches I win. So, I am still with the club as far as I know,” confirmed to journalists recently.
The Champions League:
Current champions Vipers SC will be representing Uganda in the CAF Champions League later in the year as KCCA FC has confirmed to compete in the CAF Confederation Cup.
In the 2022/23 CAF Champions League, Viper did not win a game in the group it was drawn with Simba SC of Tanzania, Raja Casablanca of Morocco and Horoya FC of Niger.
They however secured a 1-1 all draw against high riding Raja Casablanca and forced a goalless draw against Horoy.
