Interview: I advocate for educated sportsmen - Express CEO Mwesigwa speaks out on mixed fortunes at the club, Express FC

Isaac Mwesigwa is a Ugandan Munyoro sports administrator, current CEO of Express FC, ICT graduate, I have a masters in IT. I’m a certified Project Management Professional and a sports lover.

What are your major roles as a club CEO?

To run the operations, implement the strategic objectives and enhance the brand of a big club like Express CEO.

How does your day-to-day routine look?

As a CEO the day-to-day operations are quite a number. At times there are unplanned events.

My routine supervisory works; I oversee the secretariat, communication, administration, the technical bit of things to see that trainings are held, processes and procedure are followed. Making sure that the Express brand is held high and maintained, holding stakeholder, and sponsorship meetings.

When did you get involved in local football?

That was like ten years ago. I started as a football manager; I used to manage kids, take them from less privileged families; give them clothing and basic needs until they got to play for local clubs. I have managed interesting kids like Allan Okello, Julius Poloto, Mustafa Kizza and Peter Magambo etc.

I should have played football before but my parents thought that I was better off in school. Then I thought that if I can’t play then let me add value. Now from player management to club management.

What was your big breakthrough?

The big breakthrough was the transfer of Allan Okello to Paradou. Before that was Allan Okello was scoring a hat-trick against Onduparaka on his debut while playing at KCCA FC. We felt that we had made it as people who were looking after this kid.

Express FC performed really well last season. How did you pull it off?

There are many aspects why Express FC performed well. We worked as a team; from the kits man to the chairman, we were a team. Everybody was honest with whatever they were doing and we worked as a team.

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Then what went wrong?

A number of things happened. We lost our headline sponsor, Betway. Our players are also human, we played a lot of football last season. There was a bit of divergent views between the technical team and the management. Also, in the sporting world, it is not as easy to keep up to the top level. We are strategizing and we have a long-term project. Express is now living to the billing of square-pass. By playing well, we shall attract more fans, sponsors and the club will come self-sustaining.

Top challenging moments

Changing the technical team was really challenging. These were people who had won trophies for us and here we were on different directions. Also, our fans don’t want any loss. The fans need to accept results.

How do you relate with other club bosses? Last season Vipers boss Lawrence Mulindwa called a press conference and tasked FUFA to hand over the trophy to you yet they stood a chance to win.

It is key to have good relationships. The football bubble is not very big. If you have good relationships, it becomes easy say to negotiate transfers.

What should the fans hope for?

They should hope for good football, better results compared to this season and ultimately a trophy.

Which trophy?

Every trophy is important. The pressure I have now is to perform better on the continent.

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There is a perception that historical like Express FC have only the older fans ...

I would not want to believe that perception that the historical clubs have only the old generation of fans. The onus is on us to go out there and show the good things these clubs have done. When I joined Express, we had 19k followers on Twitter, now its 37.8K . These are organic fans. It’s our work as administrators to get he younger fans like going to the schools. For example school going kids watch our matches for free, we have partnerships with schools which are sources of young talents.

Parting message

Let’s take sport seriously, as a business, a way of life, not an alternative to education. These two have to go hand in hand. You will not play forever. I advocate for an educated athlete that is the only way you will have a fallback position after retirement.

You have a scenario of an athlete who can’t value a contract. Two days later the same player signs with another club yet these are the same people you want to have a good relationship with. When you tell people there is a certain level of professional conduct, they don’t understand. When you have a certain level of education, you have confidence in the way you approach certain issues.

The world has evolved so much; you must embrace science, there is no shortcut in sports, you must listen to instructions. Even coaches need education to attain qualifications like CAF certificates, explain tactics etc.

Interview: I advocate for educated sportsmen - Express CEO Mwesigwa speaks out on mixed fortunes at the club

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