Uganda Cranes is the undisputed leading sporting and national brand that breaks the barriers of ethnicity, religion, socio-economic class, political, age and gender. The celebrations, joy and happiness that I witnessed on Saturday after Uganda Cranes beating Angola cannot be caused by just 90 minutes of anything else in this country but football.
As FUFA the body that prepares the national football team, we work in extremely adverse environment to compete and overcome well facilitated opposition. There will always be opposition forces in Uganda against any sitting Federation, there will be no financial support from government, there will be taxation on the meagre revenue, there will be no facilities to blossom development and talent identification, there will be demand to watch football at the lowest of fees or free of charge for certain thousand
s of people, FUFA will have to pick national team players from amateur clubs and FUFA will have to pay for government services like police, ambulances and the stadium in order to prepare and present the national football team that is the undisputed and only remaining pride of the true nationals.
Despite the circumstances, the current management at FUFA has managed to take on the best on the continent and Mandela National Stadium is a dreaded site to visit by any African football opposition. The Uganda Cranes has grown in bounds to become the most popular brand with kids, women, foreigners living in Uganda, the elite, the celebrities and the corporate world who hitherto did know or wish to identify with the Uganda Cranes. Look at the Uganda Cranes replica jersey litter all over Uganda and the diaspora! Not even the players have been spared by the Uganda Cranes bug. Tonny Mawejje said that when he looked at the crowds still believing in the team, he had one option to give his all and this culminated into the 90th minute winner. “How could we disappoint such a passionate crowd again? I surged forward” said Mawejje after the game
The current management of FUFA, who are the unsung heroes in victory and the punching bag in times of bad results, has persevered personal abuses, misalignment, distortion of facts, disappointment of near misses, lack of appreciation by authorities and sections of the media. We have however kept riding on the passion to deliver, unanimous approval from the FUFA constituent Members, MTN, Nile Breweries, NIC, FIFA, CAF and sections of the public that will always support the Uganda Cranes despite the tides
As the dust of the Uganda Cranes world cup home game victories fast settles down, you will not fail to hear a few permanently disgruntled Ugandans raising the ghost of FUFA and its legality. Where was the legality when we need a goal from Okwi and Mawejje to cause such jubilation? It is unfortunate but this happens only in this part of the world where some nationals are not happy when their nation wins.
The more disturbing trend, is the fixed list of individual media persons who were personal beneficiaries of the USL setup that have taken up arms using their privilege of mass communication tools of the media houses to poison the public. It does not matter to some of these gentlemen whether this breaks apart the painfully built brand of the Uganda Cranes for as long as the persons behind the Uganda Cranes success story leave the stage. They will always bring up failure to qualify for big tournaments as total failure riding on the back of the emotions of the fans watering down the brand that the Cranes have become. In football success cannot be based on 100% results of the day otherwise how come the biggest clubs in the world are still supported despite mediocre performance over the years?
The gentlemen who did not give the Uganda Cranes any chance before the back to back games are the same masters predicting how Uganda Cranes cannot overcome Senegal. They are public and proud. How are we going to build the will and steel of the players when such comments are being traded? It is not about beating Senegal but look at the new look cranes with more young players whom these same pessimists did not give chance after the retirement of Ibrahim Sekajja, David Obua and Nestroy Kizito. Look at how these “experts” of oral football dismissed Micho!
As FUFA, we shall take on Senegal fighting for a place in the final 10 of Africa and we believe in our team and we believe in our nation but we shall not lose focus on the main agenda of the 2015 and thereafter AFCON qualifications. This new-look Uganda cranes team is more for the future than now and beating Senegal in September is just part of the game plan. It is up to Senegal to prove they still belong to the best in Africa. We are calling it “Uganda Cranes Project-Work in Progress”
