Moses Magogo, the Troubled Kingpin of Ugandan Football
Uganda's footballing boss has ruled over his fiefdom with an iron fist for over a decade. But now facing US sanctions, might his reign be quickly coming to an end?
Moses Magogo is inevitable at the Federation of Uganda Football Associations (FUFA). For well over a decade, he has been in supreme command of the sport in Africa’s seventh-largest country.
Corruption among football association (FA) presidents has tainted African football. Cameroonian legend Samuel Eto’o has been dogged by allegations of match-fixing and corruption since last year. The headquarters of the South African Football Association (SAFA) were raided by authorities in March, following numerous allegations that president Danny Jordaan may have been involved in “fraud and theft,” according to the Daily Maverick. Gambian football fans wrote to FIFA in March to demand an investigation into Gambia Football Federation boss, Lamin Kaba Bajo, for embezzlement.
This article is part of World of Crime’s series on Organized Crime and Football, which investigates match-fixing, corruption, illegal gambling and organized crime connections to football and sport. Subscribe to our newsletter to follow this series.
But among all African FA presidents, few have survived as many crises as FUFA’s president, Moses Magogo. Illegally reselling World Cup tickets, signing contracts between FUFA and companies he allegedly owned, harsh sanctions by US and UK authorities, Magogo has weathered numerous accusations.
This is the story of his rise to prominence, his controversial stay at the top, and why he may soon have to relinquish control of Ugandan football.
Attempts to contact Magogo and FUFA communications staff for this story went unanswered by the publication date.
A Steady Rise in Ugandan Football
His biography on FUFA’s website shows interesting if logical progress for a promising athlete turned politician. He played at a decent level for a couple of Ugandan football teams, became a club official, and progressed to become a delegate to FUFA’s general assembly in 2004. From there, he steadily climbed up the federation’s ranks, serving as secretary of FUFA’s competitions committee (2005-2011), chairman of its licensing board, and finally becoming FUFA president in 2013.
He is currently in his third term in this office and faces re-election in August 2025. He also served on the executive committee of the Confederation African Football (CAF), Africa’s regional football body, from 2019 to 2023.
The profile is nothing exceptional, bar a touch of ego. It notes his “double excellence” in sports and academics, winning a 10,000-metre race and then finishing as runner-up in a national mathematics conference within one week. The caption for a photo of Magogo playing during a charity match also notes that he is “expertly” taking control of the ball.
Alongside this football career, Magogo was elected to parliament in 2021 as MP for Budiope East. During his election campaign, he fell in love with fellow MP and Speaker of Parliament, Anita Among, and the two married in 2022.
What his profile does not reveal, however, is how Magogo has proven to be an exceptionally canny political operator who has survived numerous accusations of corruption, embezzlement, and other machinations.
The 2014 World Cup Ticket Scandal
Smaller controversies followed Magogo’s early days as FUFA president.
In 2014, Mutundwe Lions FC, a team for which Magogo once played and for which he was the main funder since 1999, was relegated from Uganda’s Big League (second division) to a regional league after skipping four matches. Magogo explained in a letter that an administrative crisis sparked by the death of a club official and his own mounting duties at FUFA, made it impossible for the club to honour its financial commitments.
But a real challenge thrown at Magogo came in June 2017. Allan Ssewanyana, a journalist and MP, held a press conference at Kampala’s Grand Imperial Hotel. Clutching documents, Ssewanyana accused Magogo of illegally reselling all 2014 World Cup tickets assigned by FIFA to be sold to Ugandan citizens.
“I have both oral and documentary evidence against Magogo. He is unfit and not competent to serve as FUFA president. He has a tainted image of selling tickets illegally for his personal benefit,” said Ssewanyana. This attack came just a few weeks after Ssewanyana lost an election to become a FUFA delegate. He is currently facing trial for murder.
According to a petition filed with FIFA’s ethics committee, Magogo received up to $45,000 from a transaction in which he transferred 177 tickets to a US-based associate named Howard Schwartz. This transaction meant that no Ugandan citizens were able to buy tickets from this pool to attend the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.
FIFA duly opened an investigation and reached a plea bargain with Magogo in 2019. Exactly what Magogo admitted to in this plea bargain has not been revealed, but the penalty for being involved in a World Cup ticket reselling scheme seemed light. A two-month suspension, a fine of 10,000 Swiss francs, and Magogo was back on the job.
“FIFA went ahead and did all the investigations and the plea bargain, which was a joke really, because we’ve seen FIFA and CAF officials be banned for way less,” said Andrew Mwanguhya, one of the leading football journalists in Uganda.
Such bans happen relatively often at all levels of the game. Former CAF president Ahmad Ahmad was banned for five years and fined $200,000 by FIFA for a range of offenses. Referees from eight African countries were banned for periods ranging from two years to life last year for bribery and corruption.
This makes Magogo’s ban look all the more lenient.
For Collins Okinyo, a veteran observer of African football based in Kenya, the power structure within FUFA has protected Magogo.
“What do these people do as they take power? You make sure you put everyone in your pocket. So no one says anything wrong. Everyone praises and worships you,” he told World of Crime.
Magogo is backed up by an electoral system that benefits him. The FUFA president is elected by regional delegates from across Uganda’s football landscape, including from each of eight regional football associations, from each premier division club, and from other interest groups, including women’s football, youth football and the referees’ association.
This is supposed to provide a wide cross-section of views from across the Ugandan football world. But Mwanguhya alleges “these are people who are manipulated. All they have to do is turn up at the Annual General Meeting [of FUFA] and vote for whoever is in charge.”
Shadowy Businesses
Magogo's business dealings have also been a significant source of controversy. According to his own CV on the FUFA website, Magogo is the chairman of the board of directors of PearlSporto Investments Limited, owner of PearlSport TV Channel. The CV states this is “the only exclusively Ugandan sports channel.”
Magogo’s private involvement in producing and broadcasting Ugandan football matches appears to be a major conflict of interest. PearlSporto’s involvement at the heart of Ugandan football is longstanding.
In 2012, a fan blog covering Ugandan supporters travelling to see their national team play away in Zambia mentioned that they had bought their travel fares through Pearl Sporto.
“PearlSporto was chosen to coordinate funds for travel [to Zambia], including collecting money. There was no real structure for choosing them,” said Mwanguhya. He added that since Magogo was working for FUFA, this likely constituted abuse of office. “They literally chose themselves.”
In May 2013, after he had already served for years as FUFA’s competitions secretary and three months before he was elected unopposed as FUFA president, Magogo signed a deal between PearlSporto and Chinese satellite TV company, StarTimes, to broadcast Ugandan football matches. StarTimes would provide the digital platform while PearlSporto would provide the actual content of Ugandan football matches.
In a briefing document, Magogo explained that StarTimes would provide US$680,000 in cash, broadcast 100 live matches at a value of US$1.2 million, and spend another US$150,000 on marketing for the Ugandan leagues.
In 2018, this deal was renewed for an expanded US$7 million, with naming rights to the league added in. The country’s top division is now named the Ugandan StarTimes Premier League.
In 2021, controversy dogged Magogo ahead when he was linked to Satellite Plus Systems, a company involved in broadcasting FUFA matches. This company broadcast games from Uganda’s men’s second division, women’s leagues, and Uganda Cup from 2019 to 2021.
Accusations quickly mounted that Satellite Plus Systems was simply a rebrand of PearlSporto. A press release on FUFA’s website stated that Satellite Plus Systems had been in business with the federation for ten years and produced matches at a cost of $1,100 per match. According to an investigation by Uganda’s Daily Monitor, led by Mwanguhya, no tender or bidding process was ever put forth for this contract.
The same investigation also found that several executives at Satellite Plus Systems were formerly directors and executives at PearlSporto. “This happened a year after Magogo’s plea bargain case. FUFA was paying Satellite Plus Systems for production of these cases. These companies are linked to Magogo,” the journalist told World of Crime.
“It’s true I own PearlSporto,” Magogo said during a TV interview in 2021, adding that PearlSporto was not providing the production. However, he stopped short of denying any involvement to the new company, instead stating that “for me, who does the production is not important. How many companies do you know around that can produce and do a live broadcast?”
Still, Magogo survived and won re-election as FUFA president in August 2021, two months after the Satellite Plus Systems investigation.
Political Ambitions
On June 9, 2020, Magogo appeared as a guest on a popular talk show. During his interview, he talked about how Ugandan football needed an attitude overhaul, calling on club owners to treat it as a full-time job in order to maximise profits.
“The business of sport is a totally new perspective in this country. We still look in sport, even talking about ourselves in government…we still look at it as something I can do in the evening, when I finished whatever I am doing,” said Magogo.
“Doing sport is supposed to be a full-time occupation,” he emphasised.
By the following year, Magogo appeared to have changed his mind. Besides being FUFA president and a businessman, Magogo decided to run for political office. Amid concerns about any conflict of interests, he defended this move as a necessary one to help FUFA get more funding and infrastructure.
He was duly elected as MP for Budiope East, a constituency northeast of the capital, Kampala.
While some press coverage of his decision was highly critical, other articles were so supportive as to border on religious fervour.
One rambling editorial in Mulengera News called Magogo “very formidable.” In a long list of praise, it highlights how Magogo had generously supported a women’s foundation, built houses in his home village, paid school fees for poor children, donated generously to five different religious groups of all faiths, encouraged fellow MPs to donate “millions in cash,” renovated churches and mosques and donated ambulances.
The article highlighted how Magogo had sponsored a Catholic priest to visit Rome and the Vatican. The priest allegedly returned with rosaries which he said had been blessed for Magogo by Pope Francis. Magogo was “god-sent” for Budiope East, said the priest. In comparison, his opponent is described as a man who “likes drink and clubbing”, “cantankerous,” and “hugely debt-stricken.”
Magogo won the seat of Budiope East, with 79.6% of the vote, for the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM). A petition was promptly lodged by his opponent, alleging that Magogo’s campaign had used “bribery, violence, intimidation, and falsification of results.”
While this petition did not have any success, the NRM has long been accused of electoral fraud and Uganda ranks among the most corrupt countries in the world.
His successful campaign brought more good fortune for Magogo. He fell in love with Anita Among, Speaker of the Ugandan Parliament and MP for Bukedea
2022 would prove to be a major year for Among, as she married Magogo and was elected Speaker of Parliament.
Football and politics seemed to mix well as the couple became keenly involved in Uganda’s Parliamentary FC, a team made up of lawmakers, with Magogo as captain and Among as honorary patron. On February 12, the Parliamentary FC even played a charity match against a UEFA Legends team led by UEFA President Aleksander Čeferin, losing 7-1.
Political Noose Begins to Tighten
The most critical challenge to Magogo’s reign to date came in 2024 when his wife became the focus of severe measures both at home and abroad. At the start of the year, a coalition of anti-corruption activists accused Among of withdrawing billions of Ugandan shillings in undisclosed moves and taking allowances for unmade trips.
In April, the UK government sanctioned Among and two other politicians for stealing iron sheets meant for housing and infrastructure in a poor region of Uganda. In May, the United States followed suit. Among and Magogo were among eight officials designated for “involvement in significant corruption.”
Among other consequences, this means that Magogo cannot travel to the United States. This proves problematic for a football association president ahead of the 2026 World Cup, which will partly be held in the United States.
This may have marked a tipping point in Magogo’s ability to stay in power.
“A US sanction is not something to be taken easily,” Okinyo told World of Crime. “When the US sanction came out, I doubt anyone in Magogo’s family could sleep. The next thing was, the president [Yoweri Museveni] was questioning about them.”
In May, following the UK sanctions, President Museveni ordered a high-level investigation into Among and whether she had undeclared houses and assets in the UK.
“When you are sanctioned, it means you’ve done something big. People will now look at you differently because that destabilises them and the president is talking about it. People do not even want to be seen with you,” added Okinyo.
Public anger at Among has only grown. On July 23, as this article was being published, anti-corruption protesters took the streets of Kampala to demand her resignation.
For now, the two are holding on to their positions but are feeling a backlash. In 2023, Magogo lost his seat on the CAF Executive Committee and was dropped from the Ugandan Parliament’s committee on ICT and National Guidance in June.
The Future
This article could continue. There is so much more to point out. In 2019, National players boycotted training because FUFA allegedly didn’t pay them. In 2023, Magogo appointed Belgian national Paul Joseph Put to coach the national teaml. Put was banned from working in football in his native Belgium and later in Guinea for high-level involvement in bribery and match-fixing. Put’s assistant coach, Sam Ssimbwa, was banned for eight months in 2021 after a recording of him admitting to bribing referees was leaked to the press.
Magogo will next face re-election as FUFA president in August 2025. In 2027, Uganda will co-host the Africa Cup of Nations with Kenya and Tanzania. And the country’s leaders may want to project a different image.
“When these sanctions happened, his movement was curtailed, his operating space was reduced. If you’re going to represent a federation with CAF, with FIFA, you need to travel and sign deals,” said Mwanguhya.
“The road doesn’t seem so clear for Moses Magogo,” he concluded.