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Jagged Blue |
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Monday, July 1, 302 AP
Web posted at 1204 UST.
The Utanian Football Association has been reborn!
President Okarvit's government-sponsored coup of the UFA in 301ap is now
paying dividends with a revamped Board and management today unveiling their
corruption-free organisation.
The Utanian Football Association unveiled its new and improved self to an audience of 700 journalists, sports commentators, the Minister for Culture and Ministry of Culture officials, and numerous observers. It had been promised for months, ever since the Board and management coup d'etat of December, after the national Utanian team failed to win a game at Vexcup 301.
The radical new organisation consists of:
- A revitalised organisation that has a clear mission statement to fulfill.
- An internal charter commitment to being corruption free, which means staff ethics committees regularly meeting to review performance.
- A Board of Directors who will focus on that mission statement and ensure that the UFA does, too.
- A massive explosion in expenditure, from Û90 million to over Û200 million!
- An improved revenue stream including Û70 million from the federal government!
- A commitment to "spreading the gospel" of football, to supporting the game at the local level.
- Millions committed to repairing and upgrading the numerous stadiums around the country.
- And, finally, a website that has been promised for years, but never delivered, until now. The 56-page web site will show regular results, 32 team profiles, player profiles, national team information, as well as the standard information about the UFA itself.
CEO Aranja points out that the UFA needs to have written down some sense of what its purpose is before it can go anywhere near fulfilling it.
"We simply cannot go about with (this) responsibility without a clear idea of what we should achieve."
Anti-Corruption
The mission is also very clearly resting on the foundation of ethical behaviour, something that was mentioned more than two-dozen times by one reporter's count. This is very understandable, given that the UFA has, or had, a poor reputation affecting its revenues, its national team players, and the national competition.
In February last year, an exasperated national Captain Gordon West, lashed out against the UFA management for a commitment to enriching themselves, not the game.
See UFA "corrupt" says defiant Utanian Captain
Only after the mid-year arrest, last year, of the then-Chairman, arguable orchestrated by the President, did things look slightly upward. The take-over by reformers Beyose and Aranja was complete in December after the disastrous showing at the 301 Vexcup.
The organisation is now filled with staff ethical committees to find ways of maintaining the ethical standard, of keeping the organisation "completely transparent". A business ethics consultant is on the Board.
It is pleasing the government, sponsors and players alike. That is not to say that everyone is happy. There have been many grumbles within the organisation saying the ethics committees are overly intrusive, and making the organisation overly bureaucratic.
But, Aranja remains undeterred.
"We either accept that there must be pain in reforming ourselves, or we give up now and let the government run football." But, he said, he believed the commitment to these measures would make their jobs easier in the long run.
Perhaps the fruit of all this work can only come as the year progresses, and the thousands upon millions of people who play the game on a dry, dusty evening in Chiquiti, or in the streets of Mulgrave, or the fields of Luka, are visited by the UFA agents, who provide free footballs, score-sheets and goals. Will they get what they asked for, or will the agents return to the bad old days when they spent the money on themselves, or their old school.
Robert Aranja doesn't think so. Perhaps only time can tell.
Only this time, the whole nation will be watching. Very closely.
Related Articles
The UFA: Organisation on a mission
Examining the new financial status of the UFA
Related Websites
The new UFA Website
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©Zeitgeist Magazine, 300 AP.
<TECH> ©Mike Ham, 2000. All rights reserved. No reproduction without, at least, tacit approval. ;-) |