Denis Obua

Denis Obua (13 June 1947 – 4 May 2010) was a former Ugandan soccer player and administrator, who played on the left-wing for Uganda between 1968 and 1977 and later served as President of the Federation of Uganda Football Associations (FUFA) and chairman of the Council for East and Central Africa Football Associations (CECAFA).

Denis Otim Obua was born on 13 June 1947 in the village of Akol in the Amolatar District of Uganda. He was educated at Boroboro Junior School and Manjasi High School, Tororo, where, in 1967, his talent was recognised and he was signed by Coffee United FC. The following year he joined Police FC, with whom he pursued parallel careers as a footballer and a policeman. In 1977, Obua was the league's top goalscorer, with 24 goals, but after Police were relegated at the end of the 1978 season he joined Maroons FC of Luzira.

Obua only played for Maroons for one season. In April 1979, the Ugandan dictator, Idi Amin, was ousted and, during the unstable period that followed, several players from Simba FC—a team which, at that time, was drawn entirely from serving Army officers—were arrested. To avoid a similar fate, Obua and a number of other soccer players fled to Kenya, where he played for Luo Union. He returned to Uganda in 1980 and rejoined Police FC, but could not regain his form and retired. In 1983, he came out of retirement and joined Villa SC, who had won the Ugandan Premier League championship the previous year.

Obua played for Villa in both second round matches of the 1983 African Cup of Champions Clubs, but, just before the first leg of the quarter-finals, he was injured in an incident that brought his playing career to an end. He was in a bar in Kamwokya when it was attacked by gunmen, who began shooting indiscriminately at the customers. Obua was shot in the abdomen and, though he was flown to West Germany for treatment, he was unable to resume playing.

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