Fellow Ugandans, Let me begin by thanking the Almighty God for bringing us this close to another New Year. I hope we all had a wonderful Christmas.
FUFA pays its respect to all our departed colleagues. May their Souls Rest In Eternal Peace! As we come to the end of 2011, I wish to thank all of you for the immeasurable support you have given to FUFA. The year 2011 has been a year of mixed fortunes at FUFA.
Achievements:
- Njeru Technical Centre: FUFA completed the construction of the Njeru Technical Centre. The FIFA Development Officer for Africa, Ashford Mamelodi was impressed by the work done by my administration on this project.
FIFA Devpt officer Ashford Mamelodi at Njeru for the final inspection on the Technical centre - U-23 Maputo: Uganda was represented at the All Africa Games in Maputo, Mozambique by our U-23 team.
- International tournaments: Uganda featured in international tournaments like CHAN, Nile Basin Championship and the LG Cup in Morocco.
- CECAFA: Uganda won a record 12th CECAFA title. Our Cranes team defied all odds and beat rivals Rwanda 3-2 on penalties after normal play had ended 2-2 in Dar-es Salaam.
FUFA President consults his executive members during a retyreat at Entebbe in October - Administration, Finance and Communication: My administration reconstituted FUFA by bringing in more administrators to bolster football development in Uganda. New Standing committees were named. Several administrative and beach soccer courses were held to enhance the proper running of the game. We have continued to practice transparency and accountability at all levels which has won admiration of our local and international partners. Our website www.fufa.co.ug continues to run smoothly and offers regular news of all FUFA activities. I encourage everyone out there to regularly visit this website.
- Referees: FUFA ensured that several referee courses were held to improve refereeing standards. Several refresher courses have been conducted throughout the country.
- Coaches: We have encouraged more coaches to take up national and international assignments. Courses have been held to improve the level of coaching and more will be held.
Mujib Kasule (right) shares a happy moment with the FA President. Mujib was appointed new VP in charge of USL in November this year. - Uganda Super League: FUFA appointed Mr. Mujib Kasule as Vice President in charge of USL to streamline the proper running of the league and to ensure that the Jinja Declaration is adhered to by all stakeholders.
- Sponsorship: We thank our sponsors MTN, Bell, NIC, Nile Breweries Ltd, Coca Cola, City Tyres, the government, and everyone who contributed towards our activities in 2011.
- The Cranes: The national team has drawn alot of support from all quarters. We recorded a record turn out during the Angola, Guinea Bissau and Kenya AFCON 2012 games at Namboole Stadium. We thank our fans for the tremendous support.
- Youth Football: Youth football continued to flourish under my administration. Uganda also impressed at the East African Secondary Schools Championships in Mbarara, with two Ugandan teams Kibuli SS and St Mary’s Kitende, reaching the finals. Setting up youth structures at all levels has been our priority. School games teachers were also trained.
Crested Cranes Head Coach, Majda Nantanda giving instructions to her players shortly before they left for Egypt for the international friendly matches. Looking on is Lisa Berg from USA - Women’s football: FUFA continued to promote women football. A number of teams took part in this year’s FUFA Women Inter Regional Championship held in Fort portal. Lisa Berg, a woman Football technical consultant from USA is in the country to assist in the development of women football. Our national team played two international friendly matches against Egypt in Cairo this December.
Kampala Region Captain Bonny Baingana receives a trophy from the FUFA president in Tororo. Baingana now features for Express FC - FUFA- MTN Inter Regional Championship: FUFA held the MTN Inter Regional Championship in Tororo. This championship helps the federation technical team to tap raw talent. Current Super League prominent players like Bonny Baingana and Musa Mukasa (Express FC) and Goal Keeper Jamal Salim among others were identified from our last inter regional competitions in Tororo.
Plan for the year ahead 2012
- Cranes World Cup and Nations Cup qualifiers: Cranes will take part in the 2014 World Cup qualifiers. We are in the same group with Angola, Senegal and Liberia in the world Cup qualifiers. Cranes will meet Congo Brazzaville away on February 29, 2012 in the Nations Cup qualifiers. The main challenge is funding.
The Cranes team that lifted the 2011 Cecafa Tusker Cup in Dar es salaam - Youth Football: FUFA will continue to promote youth football by encouraging more teams to take part in youth tournaments like the COPA Coca Cola championship, the U-15 S1/S2 FUFA championship, U-16 Shell Championship and U-14 City Tyres Championship.
- Women football: The Crested Cranes will host Congo in the African Cup of Nations Women qualifiers on January14 at Nakivubo Stadium. I encourage Ugandans to come in big numbers and cheer our team.
- Njeru Technical Centre: We will soon officially open the Njeru Technical Centre. We thank FIFA, through our Regional Development Officer Ashford, for financing this project.
President Yoweri Museveni visited the Cranes camp in October and he later promised to continue support the FUFA efforts of lifting our soccer to another level - Monitoring potential Cranes players: In a bid to strengthen our national team, FUFA is running an aggressive campaign of monitoring potential Cranes players locally and internationally. We will give these players a chance to feature for Cranes and in other national youth teams.
- Marketing and sponsorship: FUFA will seek more sponsors for all our activities. Companies, individuals and government will be sought to support our national teams, Beach soccer, technical development, youth development and women football.
- Administration and Communication: My administration will ensure that our local administrators continue to get international exposure through organising administrative courses. FUFA will seek more sponsors for our website to make it more attractive and widely visited.
- Media symposium: FUFA, in conjunction with CAF and FIFA, will organise a Media Symposium in Kampala aimed at improving the standards of football reporting.
Uganda has participated in a number of tournaments this year. The picture above shows Coach Bobby shortly after return Egypt for the Nile Basin Cup. Uganda finished second - Uganda Super League: FUFA will engage FIFA and CAF instructors to train our local club administrators on acceptable management standards. Many clubs are being run down due to inefficiency in administration.
- International tournaments: Uganda will continue to feature in international tournaments to expose our players more on the international scene.
Conclusion
FUFA would like to thank the government, the State Minister for Sports Hon. Charles Bakabulindi, our sponsors, media and all our fans for the support you have accorded to the federation in the past year.
We assure Ugandans that we are still very committed to the development of football in Uganda. Discipline of players, officials and all other members of FUFA will be paramount. FUFA will not tolerate indiscipline and violation of the Constitution and FIFA Statutes.
I once again wish you a happy New Year.
Live it Love it.
Lawrence Mulindwa
FUFA PRESIDENT
