Jinja Progressive Academy (JIPRA) from the games village at Ngora High School has accused the organisers of the 2025 U-20 national football boys championship hosted at Ngora High School of bias.
JIPRA was on Tuesday expelled from the games following events that transpired during their aborted semifinal match with St Mary’s Boarding School, Kitende.
While St.Mary’s took the lead during the game, JIPRA scored in the 39th minute but the assistant referee raised the flag for an offside call, prompting a section of fans to attack him for cancelling the would be equalizer.
The organisers of the games would later expel JIPRA from the tournament.
However, in a statement on Wednesday, Jinja Progressive said there was bias against them.
The school said whereas they were ejected from the tournament on grounds of fielding players(Adrian Isabirye and Ntege Musa) who had accumulated cards, and purported hooliganism, this was done without a fair hearing to them.
“This was done without a fair hearing from the organizing committee, that had earlier on before the game, through technical director Mr. Muhumuza, in a meeting, unanimously agreed to scrap off the cards, some of which had been fixed on the players behind our back,” JIPRA said in a statement.
The Jinja schools said the committee also denied their plea to change the set of referees that had “already been compromised, little wonder, in the second minute of the game, he issued a yellow card to Martin Ekuma, for a foul one would call the other way.”
“ In the fifth minute, he issued a controversial penalty to St.Marys Kitende. The game was marred with consistent irregularities and wrong calls from the set of referees, and all our claims fell on deaf ears.”
JIPRA said in the 35th minute, they scored a “ clear goal,” and the entre referee pointed to the centre, “but the linesman raised his flag”, an act that sparked wild reactions from the locals.
The school says the game was halted, and both teams were asked to leave the field of play, and wait for a verdict from the committee.
“The reaction of the fans was unjustified, but the root cause needs to be ratified, which was the corrupted set of referees led by Mr. Jumba.”
The school said they are devastated with the decision but vowed to come back even stronger.
