Some of the shops in Kuajok market were the Kuajok Football Association rented one of the shops as its office - Credit: Eye Radio/Andrew Akol - Oct. 20, 2022

Thirteen football clubs in Warrap state have accused the Kuajok Local Football Association of misappropriating the association’s resources, an allegation denied by the secretary.   

The controversy emerged after the teams who are part of the General Assembly abstained from passing a financial report due to a lack of transparency.

It also resulted in the withdrawal of 13 of the 19 teams from participating in the South Sudan Cup Competition which was set to start on the 14^th of this month.

Some of the club’s Presidents who spoke to Eye Radio said their withdrawal from the competition resulted in their detention on 15^th October at the Criminal Investigation Department in Kuajok.

They claimed the 20 administrators who were detained for two days were tortured at the detention facility.

George Gong Bol, the Secretary General of Tiger United FC in Kuajok that the Association’s properties were sold out allegedly by the secretary.

“There is mismanagement of materials in the association and all the laptops which were brought by General Augustino Maduot have been put in the market for business and that money we cannot see them reflecting in the financial report,” said Gong.

“Those are the problems that have been seen and we the general assembly cannot accept them because these are the public money and also these are the public equipment.”

For his part, Charles Chol, the President of Junubi Football Club in Kuajok says he was arrested with his colleagues because they complained about the mismanagement of association properties.

“The incident started with me when Kuajok local football association conducted the first general assembly meeting in SPLM which happened to arrest me together with my colleague Rhino FC President,” Chol said.

Responding to the allegation, Paulino Anei Bak, the Acting Secretary General of Kuajok Local Football Association dismissed the claims.

“The accusation that has been circulating all [these] days is not true because we the Kuajok local football administration, we have a system of the report, and we have a system of management where all our reports are channeled,” Anei said.

“Those who are saying that there is corruption allegation in the association, there is no corruption. Of course, they were arrested but they were not tortured because we the Kuajok local football association, did not torture the club administrators.”

The teams that boycotted the South Sudan Cup Competition include Tiger FC, Grasco FC, Blackcock FC, Rhino FC, Junubi FC, and Majak Amal FC.

Others include Kuajok United FC, Real Black FC, Black diesel FC, Hilal FC, Freedom FC, Gumel United FC, and Santos FC.