The heart-warming story of Coventry City's unlikely supporters' club born out of an African slum

Coventry City have supporters all over the world with the latest outreach spreading to Japan where a handful of fans have caught the Sky Blues bug due to Tatsuhiro Sakamoto’s move and subsequent popularity at the Championship club.

In fact, the football club has followers dotted about the globe in 32 countries to date, prompting the well-established London Supporters’ Club to set up Sky Blues International to bring them all under one banner, with fans as far afield as USA, Canada and one in Mexico, while members are spread throughout Europe with the Scandinavian countries and the Republic of Ireland well represented. In Europe the furthest west member is based in Hafnarfjordur, Iceland, the most northern is based in Boda, Norway, the most southern and eastern member lives in Chania on the Greek island of Crete.

There are others dotted about in Africa, the Middle East, Asia, Australia and New Zealand with many members living in these regions who were originally from the Coventry area, although there are a few exceptions. The one big exception and largely unexpected Sky Blue enclave is in Uganda, which has its very own supporters’ club branch, now boasting almost 100 members.

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It also stands out for being one of the most heart-warming stories of connection between the club and a part of the world where poverty and the most basic of human rights, from clean water and sanitation to education are denied to many in the poorest areas.

Ronald Kamoga, 42, counts himself as one of the lucky ones who was “blessed” with education and became an accountant with a clear humanitarian vision to give back to his community in Lubya parish, nicknamed Kosovo slum, Nabulagala village, just a few miles from the capital, Kampala.

Here Ronald, founder and president of Coventry City Uganda Supporters Club, takes up the story.

“This was founded 10 years ago informally but officially registered in the Uganda company house in 2021. It’s now a massive fanbase with close to 100 members spread across Uganda," he proudly boasts.

“I first heard of CCFC in 2014 from my good friend Kev Monks (a life-long Sky Blues fan) after a fundraising event was organised by a 15-year-old, Emily Allcott, at The 2-Tone Village in Ball Hill, Coventry. The fundraiser aimed to raise money for a charity I had founded in the Kosovo slum to support orphans and vulnerable children living in deprived conditions.

“Emily was a student at Stoke Park Community School and by then had visited Uganda with her other students and teachers through a project called Africa Inspires. One of the schools they had visited was close in my community, and the head of this school gave me a surprise call inviting me to take her visitors in the community since I was known to help deprived people.

“When I connected with the Stoke Park visitors I took them for a tour of the Kosovo Slum and the surroundings, and showed them the work CEFOVID Uganda Children’s charity was doing, which amazed them. On return to Coventry, the youngest girl organised a fundraiser and made a presentation about my community poverty status and the commitment she saw in me to save it. From this event she raised over £500!

“Her presentation attracted many people to know more about my work which sparked a lot of friends requests on Facebook and this helped me to connect with the bigger Coventry community.

“Amongst the friends I made was Kev (Monks), a strong supporter of Coventry City FC, who always would share updates about the club and its history, and later on I picked up a lot of interest in the club which led to me becoming a fan. He sent me kits to put on and his friend Suky Singh from the 2-Tone Village also attracted many of my friends to know more about the club. It’s during this time that I could tell many people in Uganda about Coventry City and they also got interested in joining the fans club.

“In 2021 we got some funds and we could watch together some football games, especially those that fall on weekends when fellow fans are not at work. But later on fans watch by themselves if the matches were shown on Supersport, but I always watch on ifollow since I have an account and always share updates with them.”

Ronald then set up the Little Coventry Kids academy which has three teams for boys and two for girls for age groups 5-10, 11 to 17 and an adults team, all of whom have been sent Sky Blues replica kits to play in, and organise tournaments.

Kev Monks, who is heavily involved in the 2-Tone Village in Coventry as well as a passionate Sky Blues supporter, explained how he and the 2-Tone Village got involved, saying: “Trevor Evans was The Specials’ roadie and his daughter, Danielle, was also at Stoke Park and went on the trip to Uganda and came back and told her dad all about the work Ronald was doing and that’s how the 2-Tone Village got involved.

“We had a couple of fund raisers for them and it all grew from there. I spoke to Ronald quite a bit and found out that his love was football and so I encouraged him to support Coventry City.

“He wanted to set up a kids’ football team and I suggested they call it ‘Little Coventry’ and we have donated kits, boots and even paid for goal posts over the years. And now there’s going to be a school built just five miles outside of Kampala where there will be a football academy there as well.

“Three charities are funding the school, one called Jamie's Legacy Fund which was formed by the family of a young boy who died young and they wanted to do something positive in his memory. They have been very instrumental in the funding, as well as a number of other charities and the 2-Tone Village as well. All the funding has been sorted and it’s now being build and should be open in June 2025.”

As for Ronald’s charity work, he explained: “I am the founder of CEFOVID Uganda children’s charity aimed at increasing access to comprehensive care and support to orphans and vulnerable children and families living in the Kosovo slum and the surrounding area through empowering them so they can live a self reliant life.

“Some fans have been supportive with the charity work, and I am humbled, while there are a lot of challenges to fight head-on. We do education sponsorships, basic healthcare, train young girls and teenage mothers in sewing, donate clean, safe water and run an academy.

“We do sessions in menstrual hygiene and period poverty. We donate beddings to deprived children, donate monthly groceries and financial literacy is trained to young mothers.”

He added: “Kosovo Slum is actually a nickname that sounds so much because of the levels of vulnerability in the area, crime rate, commercial sex workers and rampant floods in the area.

“I was born at the outskirts of the slum seeing what people go through, and, being blessed with education and getting a job as an accountant when still young, triggered me to start supporting the vulnerable area. The real name is Lubya parish, Nabulagala village where our office is 2km from the slum.”

Asked about the Sky Blues, who are his favourite players and his reaction to the news that Mark Robins had been sacked, he said: “Haji Wright to me is my favourite currently and to many of my teammates. They love Milan van Ewijk as well as they say he always lifts the fans, boosting morale.”

As for the managerial news, he added: “At first I was hit by news as unbelievable! Fans didn’t get any chance to give him a deserving farewell and to me this didn’t look at fans as stakeholders. But as time moves on I am getting back to the real football world. I am grateful to have seen him as our great manager and left a legacy which can never be forgotten.

“I wish we now get a matching replacement as fans were eager to relate with Mark Robins at all levels, especially during the first matches.”

For more information about the work that Ronald is doing you can follow him on his facebook page: facebook.com/cefovid