Uganda’s qualification campaign to the 2015 Nations cup in Morocco dubbed ‘The road to Morocco” officially kicked off on Sunday with a football gala organized by FUFA at the KCCA Stadium in Lugogo.
Four teams, FUFA, Sponsors and two ex-international select sides participated in the day long gala that was organized to usher in the draws to the AFCON 2015 Campaign.
A special tent was arranged from where the draw was followed live via U-tube as it was conducted in Cairo, CAF’s headquarters.
Ex-Internationals (Team B) won the gala to scoop the trophy after overcoming FUFA XI in the final courtesy of Nana Ntabazi’s strikes.
Earlier, FUFA had ejected the Sponsor’s team (that combined Airtel, NIC and Nile Breweries Limited) 1 – 0 in the semi finals.
FUFA Marketing committee member, Johnson Musinguzi scored FUFA’s lone strike in the 13th minute.
Speaking after the gala and the draws, FUFA president, Engineer Moses Magogo appreciated the sponsors and all stake holders to see the game progress and Uganda’s campaign successful.
“Thank you everybody for your effort of helping the Cranes’ Afcon 2015 campaign. About the draws, it is fair and we shall strive to ensure qualification”, he said.
Uganda was drawn to play Madagascar in a second round fixture between 16th – 18th May. The first leg will be held in Madagascar with the return leg coming up two weeks later (between 30th May- 1st June 2014) at Mandela National stadium, Namboole.
The winner will thus face the victor of the Equatorial Guinea/Mauritania fixture in the third round.
Should Uganda over come the two qualification hurdles, the nation will move to the last qualification phase in group E that has Ghana, Togo and Guinea.
The sponsors once again recommitted their desire and urge to the Uganda’s qualification path right from the initial preparations to the matches.
Uganda Cranes head coach, Milutin ‘Micho’ Sedrojevic hailed the good effort of all stake holders involved to see Uganda qualify.
“Every Ugandan is targeting the finals in Morocco and we shall work diligently to ensure qualification. The draws are fair but we have to work hard and prepare adequately”, Micho spoke at Lugogo.
The sponsors were also in attendance at Lugogo.
Alex Wekoye- Airtel’s head of branding and communication said ‘it is a good draw. We have big plans for this campaign. We are going to help in the Cranes in this qualification by flying fans to Madagascar to cheer the team’
NIC Corporate Communications Manager Pamela Abonyo said ‘No team is week at this stage. Our players should not take things for granted’
Airtel are the main sponsors of the Uganda Cranes while NIC and Nile Special are official partners of the national team.
