Last week, Fufa announced that The Cranes will have to host their next Afcon 2023 qualifiers in another country after Uganda failed to pass the Caf homologation test for stadiums.
This is hardly a surprise, and Fufa expected it for some time. So, I expected a mitigation plan from Fufa president Moses Magogo, but there was none. Instead, in a typical escapist mentality, he tried to play down the matter by saying Uganda is not alone in the predicament as there are 23 other nations.
He also mentioned that Fufa’s hands are tied on the matter, and they can only look on and hope for a quick finish to the refurbishment of Namboole stadium.
Given that Uganda sits at the bottom of the group with just a point after two qualifiers, Magogo is using this inferiority complex to prepare Ugandans for the worst.
It is a fact that Namboole is a government facility, but Fufa is the biggest beneficiary of its use. With the billions of funds at Fufa’s disposal and the billions Fufa milks from Cranes matches at the venue, the federation ought to have an obligation to contribute to Namboole’s refurbishment.
Unfortunately, Magogo and his team don’t see this as a mandate from Fufa to promote and facilitate the development of the game. They are instead content to leave all work to the government.
Fufa has always rightly cried out to Namboole stadium management to prioritize football at the expense of born-again events and other music shows, and now would have been the right time to lay claim as a stakeholder by helping in the stadium’s revamp.
Fufa should stop acting like a grown-up son in the house who only waits for the food on the table and does not contribute to house chores.
If the federation can pocket Shs 2 billion from StarTimes’ deal with Uganda Premier League clubs, why not at least use that as its contribution?
In retrospect, this is hardly surprising given Fufa’s reputation as masters of deception. When they brought Fifa president Gianni Infantino to launch the Kadiba training centre in 2017, it was announced that all the $4.4 million (Shs 15.4 billion) funding had been secured and the work would be done in three years.
Six years after that launch, there is hardly anything to show for it. I don’t want to mean Kadiba would have hosted Cranes games, but knowing the Caf stadium rules, to sit back and only wake up to tell the nation without offering alternatives is sheer ineptitude.
The author is SC Villa first vice president in charge of mobilization.
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