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BY RICHARD DRASIMAKU
ARUA: FRIDAY, DECEMBER 26, 2025
ADALAFU 2 : 1 YIVU
The Adalafu ward and Yivu ward teams, staged an entertaining football contest on Wednesday as the Ayivu West Constituency Christmas cup came a close.
Both teams in the final were from the former Pajulu sub county that fielded two groups of teams due to the fact that it had nine parishes now referred to as Wards, far more than the Adumi and Ayivuni that also fielded teams in the contest.
The match ended 2:1 in favor of Adalafu ward, thus becoming the champions of the maiden tournament.
The show piece marked an exhilarating Christmas evening for sports enthusiasts who are reeling the predicaments of their beloved Onduparaka FC team that has fallen from the limelight of the Uganda Premier League to the second tier Big League.
Atiku whose backing of Ondupara FC when he was a member of Parliament had led to the team’s golden period in football, says from next year he will make the tournament to start from the village/cell level.
All cells in Ayivu West Division will field both boys’ and girls’ teams that will compete against each other in the Ward to build the team that will represent the Ward.
The first phase of the competition will be held during the holidays of the First academic term. Then the Wards will compete against each other in the former sub counties during the Second Term holidays.
That will produce the two teams that will represent the Sub counties at the constituency level in December, culminating in the finals on the Christmas Day.
Atiku said if he successfully maneuvers an electoral victory to go back to Parliament, the constituency cup tournament will be upgraded to the Uganda Big league standard and scouts from National teams will also be invited to lookout for talent during match days.
“In terms of rewards, we shall be talking of sh10m for winner and good millions for other ward teams who perform very well,” he said.
For the maiden tournament, champions Adalafu scooped sh1,000,000, Yivu Ward that ended second took home sh500,000 and the third team, Kubo Ward took sh250,000.
In the girls’ category, Yivu girls that topped the table of the three-team of the girls took home sh500,000 while the runner up Pokea ward and third placed Adalafu took sh250,000 each.
Pokea and Adalafu both finished with one point a piece but were graded based on disciplinary records.
All teams were given playing uniforms, a new football and medals as winners savored in their trophies.
Caroline Abiri, captain of the Yivu Girls team lauded the games for enabling them to know colleagues from other wards.
It was a networking opportunity as well as a worthy exercise to keep the young folks physically fit and healthy during the holidays.
“This tournament kept us busy and there was no room for youths and especially school children to loiter on the streets and trading centers. I advise that all young people should keep busy through sports, we should use the balls that have been given to do exercises so that we maintain and nurture our talents,” she said in an interview.
Atiku expressed hope that the Constituency cup tournament will fill the gap for Onduparaka Football Club left by the failure to establish a sports academy and provide an avenue to stream talent into the national team.
Prior to his electoral defeat in 2021, Atiku had established a link between Onduparaka FC and Liverpool FC of the English Premier League that had reached a Memorandum of Understanding to help the Arua Club to establish a sporting academy.
Everton FC also sent scouts to probe for talent in Arua, but the shock waves generated by Atiku’s ouster from Parliament and the subsequent administrative crisis that hit Onduparaka FC caused the Brits to slum their doors shut.
