FUFA Executives Approves 2023 FUFA Drum Play Format With Record 46 Matches
The 2023/24 FUFA Drum tournament will have 46 matches instead of last year’s 30 matches, the FUFA Executives confirmed on Thursday.
Traditionally the tournament played by 16 Provinces since its inception in 2018 had 61 matches before it was halted in 2020 due to Covid-19 pandemic that hit the globe and affected the organization of several competitions.
The FUFA Drum resumed last year with 30 matches played out of the 16 provinces and now the FUFA Executives have approved a new play format ahead of the upcoming 2023 campaign.
FUFA Executives have announced a record 46 games from 16 provinces for the 2023/24 show-piece.
This development was announced on Thursday via FUFA’s official website.
The official communication signed off by the FUFA Deputy CEO-Football Decolas Kiiza will see the best 8 provinces from last year’s tournament receiving a bye to the next round while the last 8 provinces from last year will be drawn together with the best four joining the best 8 teams in the next round to make 12 teams.
The 12 teams will be seeded according to their performance into 3 pots and drawn into groups (A,B, C and D ) where the best two from the four groups progress to the quarter-finals and face each other to determine the four teams that will advance to the semi finals.
The two teams that will progress from the semi finals will face each other to determine the winner of the 2023 FUFA Drum while the third place will be determined from the winner between the losers of the semi-finals.
NB: Apart from the final and the losers game that will be played once and in a neutral ground, the rest of the games will be played on home and away basis to make a total of 46 games for the 2023 tournament as confirmed by FUFA Deputy CEO-Football Decolas Kiiza on FUFA’s official website.
“Whereas there had been desire to play the FUFA Drum in the original version with 61 matches being played, a new version will be introduced with 46 matches which is an improvement on the last edition where 30 matches were played,” Reads a statement on FUFA’s website signed by FUFA Deputy CEO-football Decolas Kiiza.
Below Is The Approved Version Of The 2023 FUFA Drum Tournament.
- On the basis of the last edition’s performance the best 8 province teams will get byes to the next round.
- The last 8 Province teams are randomly paired to play home and away (8 matches).
- The 4 winners on aggregate join the other 8 that received byes to make 12 province teams.
- The 12 Province teams be seeded according to performance into 3 pots and draw of lots conducted to have 4 groups (A, B, C, D) of 3 teams each.
- Teams in each group play each other home and away (24 matches).
- The best 2 teams in each group progress to quarter finals (A1 v B2, B1 v A2, C1 v D2, D1 v C2) home and away (8 matches).
- Winners progress to semifinals to be played home and away (4 matches).
- Losers play for third place (1 match).
- Winners play for first place (1 match).
Buganda Province (2018), Acholi Province (2019) and West Nile Province (2022/2023) are the past winners of the FUFA DRUM tournament.