Bumamuru

Buganda sits in a country where the top flight has long been run out of the capital. Bumamuru FC was set up on 31 March 2014.

The way up came in 2017/18, in a Ligue B play-off against Les Eléphants FC. The tie finished 1:1 and went to penalties, where Bumamuru held their nerve and won the shoot-out 5:4.

What followed was quicker than the climb. The Coupe du Président de la République came in 2021 and again in 2022, back-to-back, and with it two entries into the CAF Confederation Cup. Neither trip lasted long: Diables Noirs put them out 0:1 on aggregate, and Fasil Kenema won 3:2 the following season. Both exits arrived in the first round.

2023 was the year the club reached three finals and lost the ones that mattered most for the cabinet. Beaten in the cup final and beaten in the Super Coupe, Bumamuru finished as runners-up twice over — though Flambeau du Centre, the side that has become the natural obstacle in these fixtures, took the league title that season while Bumamuru's own name went onto the Ligue A honours list for 2023.

The green and white — Les verts blancs, as they are known — play at the Stade Urunani, which holds 7 000. It is a modest ground by the standards of the competitions the club has been drawn into over the past four seasons, and it is where a town that had no top-division football before 2018 now watches it every other week.