BUL FC ALTERS EASTERN REGION FOOTBALL FACE
BUL Football Club JINJA (BUL FC)
In the late 70s, 80s and 90s, the Eastern region was filled with the passion of football rivalry that existed amongst fans of Nile Football Club, UEB FC, To***co FC and Nytil Fc that greatly contributed a lot to the filling of Walukuba To***co grounds, Kakindu and the Bugembe stadium among others. Well when such teams vanished due to their administrative difficulty, the companies seized to continue with the sponsorship and as well as European elite leagues eating up the mind of our local fans who gave up with games at the local scene. Until then in 2007, BIDCO Uganda Limited Managing Director Kodhey Rao who developed an idea of coming up with some departmental sports competitions and this forced him to visit the then company near-by Walukuba play ground of which he got it bushy with broken walls of the pavilion with goats and cows grazing, alongside it being filled with lantana camara, he had to share the idea with his fellow directors to initiate a strong team from departmental competition that could work out for BIDCO Uganda Limited company's powers and advertisement as well. If you approached the current chairperson for more clarification about the beginning of the club, the jovial Alias Silver could not hide his joy for having such a strong side in the region while plotting for its humble beginning.
''We realized in past the decay of football in the region, Iganga was inconsistent but Jinja was continuously letting some of its greatest stars depart unceremoniously without recognition, so we sat down to start a new football club in the area so as to exploit the untapped talent but the most important reason was to create jobs for the surrounding community as well.'' Aliasi said. On realizing that Walukuba has grazed some of the country’s finest players for the Cranes like Bright Dhaira (now our goal keeper coach) and presently his son Abbey Dhaira(in IBV Iceland), Moses Oloya (In Vietnam Super League), Andy Mwesigwa, Geoffrey Massa (Pretoria University-RSA), Simeone Masaba to mention but a few, colleagues bought the idea and quickly the club under its founding coach Emile Amasha and Lumu Fred, club treasurer Roupesh and then Club Secretary Timothy Mwanda , started off the 2007 campaign when it won the 2007-2008 Jinja's division one league title. The club then decided to hire an experienced super league coach Richard Makumbi who since then never looked back from its told outstanding performance enroute to the Eastern Mini league finals when they won the title after defeating Busia FC in the finals thus qualifying to FUFA Big League. The then coach Makumbi known in the region as the Ugandan football witch doctor because of his ‘never say die’ attitude he puts in his players, then guided BUL into Big league play offs finals defeating Iganga Municipal Council FC 1-0 in the extra time thanks to Ali Maganda’s effort, who finished as the season's leading talisman with 8 goals in the Big League campaign. WHAT HAS GIVEN BUL AN EDGE TO REVAMP ITS GLORY UP TODATE? The club's patrons Kodey Rao and Director Suvrajit Ghosh , Chairperson Silver Aliasi, General secretary Gerald Kayuuyo, Administrative Secretary Salmin Saleh and the ever motivated head coach Alex Isabirye have put up a good motivating structure that has attracted some of the finest talents in the region and the most signifying factor registering each player to a health Insurance scheme at AAR. This all coupled up with other factors may earn BUL fc its maiden accolade in the Uganda’s top football competitions. We have tapped the finest talents in East Africa in the past recent transfer period of players as it’s our style of seeing our brand of breath taking football that has made stadium filled to capacity in all BUL home games at Kakindu stadium. Fans have already began idolizing some of the club's eye catching talents like Milton Karisa, no-nonsense Hashim Sempala, and Herbert Odipio who have expressed their games with a lot of enthusiasm. OUR WAY FORWARD
Team leader, Customer Response Team- General Manager Suvrajit Ghosh said that on the 55 hectares of land BIDCO Uganda Limited has got at Masese, the company is planning to construct a modern stadium and a housing estate that will accommodate its players and officials.
''With all that in plan, we began already using our strong financial muscle to compete against the top flight clubs for the finest players as we seek to take the local soccer titles in the nearby future because our target is to be the best club in the country.” says Mr. Former FUFA Eastern region Chairperson Sam Lwere on the other hand approved that BUL fc and the other super league sides Jinja Municipal Council and Sadolin Paints FC has greatly contributed to the bringing back of soccer fans into football matches in this region.
''We have greatly appreciated their role of bringing back our fans to the stadiums and that is good for the future in terms of revenue and building confidence in players'', said Lwere. BUL FC started in the season of 2007/2008 in which they participated in the Jinja Division one League. It played three seasons in the 1st Division, one season in the Fufa Big League and four seasons in the Elite top League of Uganda.
