The Federation of Uganda Football Associations (FUFA) President Eng. Moses Magogo has saluted the Government of Uganda for the timely financial and logistical support over time for the Federation and Uganda Cranes in particular.
Speaking from Avani Maseru Hotel in Maseru city, Lesotho where the Uganda Cranes team is currently camped prior to the Total AFCON 2019 qualifier against the home country on Tuesday, Eng. Magogo specifically thanked President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni and First Lady Janet Museveni-Minister of Education and Sports for the timely support of Shs 200M and a chartered flight to Lesotho, where commercial flights are a menace.
Eng. Moses Magogo’s full interview:
We would like to thank the Government for the support they have given us. Traveling in Africa is not an everyday thing especially the level of infrastructure of our Continent.
There are some countries which are very difficult to reach to especially by public transport. The countries that are well off have been doing this very perfectly.
I would love to inform the public that our plea to the head of state was answered by a chartered flight. We left on Sunday morning with about 99 people on board including players, officials, fans and the media.We had a stop over in Zambia until we reached well in Maseru.
Surely, we can not ask for more and the players understand this, they appreciate. Gone are the days when some people were pulling and others pushing. Now, we all seem to be pushing together.
This is just the beginning of very many things to come. In 2014, we had an ambition of qualifying for the Africa Cup of Nations in 2019.
The target seemed to be far initially. Of course, there was the 2017 AFCON campaign. This was merely a learning curve for us. There are targets we set alongside accomplishing the 8 pillars of football development that we had to address and i am sure that some of these have been addressed especially educating club coaches which train the players from where the head coach selects.
We wanted qualification to AFCON to become an everyday routine but rather not as a benchmark to weigh the successes of FUFA. Let us wait for the positive results and we believe we shall achieve them like anticipated, then we step up the next gear. There is the the element of heading to AFCON to compete and qualifying for Qatar World Cup 2022 among other targets.
The most important thing has been our will to thank Allah for the guidance, wisdom and health for what we have achieved and not achieved. Most importantly, has been the new aspect of planning. There is a total plan and this is being executed to the dot.
Uganda Cranes face Lesotho Likuena (Crocodiles) at the Setsoto Stadium on Tuesday night in a match where maximum points for the Cranes will further enlighten the chances of a return to AFCON, following the 2017 success script to the finals hosted in Gabon. when Uganda appeared the continental show piece for the first time since 1978.
FUFA Executive Committee member Richard Ochom is the Head of Delegation for the Ugandan contingent in Lesotho.
