UGANDAN Football League Champions URA FC have survived a three-year ban by the Confederation of Africa Football Association (CAF) after it failed to travel to Bamako, Mali for a return game against Djoliba in the 2012 Africa Champions League.Rogers Mulindwa, the spokesperson of the Federation of Uganda Football Associations (FUFA) told Xinhua in an interview late on Wednesday that CAF’s disciplinary committee made the decision over the weekend. "As the Federation we are happy that when our Vice President (League) Mujib Kasule and some URA officials travelled to Cairo, they managed to convince the CAF officials,” said Mulindwa.The Ugandan champions had lost the first leg 2-0 but communicated to CAF which is based in the Egyptian capital Cairo that they could not travel to Bamako because of the insecurity there following a coup. The Ugandan government had also warned the URA team not to risk flying to Mali because the country was not secure enough although the hosts had earlier communicated that security would be taken care of during the match.CAF’s decision means that URA can now take part in any CAF tournament next season including the Champions League and the Confederations event.

URA FC already have one foot in international football next season after winning the Uganda Cup last season which puts them in the Africa Confederations Cup. If the Ugandan team had been fined by CAF it could have paid over 25,000 U.S. dollars and served a three-year ban.