Africa-Press – Uganda. In the coming weeks, the Confederation of African Football will draw the lot for Ivory Coast 2023 Africa Cup of Nations group stage qualifiers. Uganda national team, the Cranes, are seeded in Pot 2 and will fancy their chances of a return to Africa’s premier sporting competition after choking in the qualifiers for the 2021 edition. The Cranes have started preparations for the qualifiers in earnest and it is a relief that the local football federation is no longer limiting itself to playing village teams under on regional tours. The national team is expected to return from a second build-up engagement overseas after the first in January where it toured parts of Europe and Asia. In these tours, Uganda have played Iceland, Moldova, Iraq, Iran, Bahrain, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
Right, the names sound wishy-washy especially when you see that at the time of meeting Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, Ivory Coast were playing France and England. That should be our dream, the national pride.
For Fufa, the days of dreaming to just qualify the Cranes to the Nations Cup are behind. The Cranes and their fans now expect much more and international friendly games with even Norway should be one.
When Ivory Coast plays England and France, these football powerhouses are looking for certain aspects of the Ivorian game such as physicality that they can challenge their players to. The Cranes lack the exposure to earn the attention of even European minnows such as Gibraltar, San Marino and Georgia. But in these tours, the likes of Moldova, Bahrain, Iran, and Iceland have given the Cranes that small bit of international exposure that must not be taken for granted.
Critics have pointed to the farcical nature of these tours but Fufa do not need to explain much here except to show the nation that the national team head coach picked valuable lessons.
These tours have offered many of these players a chance to impress football scouts and get better pay cheques out there. Nobody knows how Fufa has managed to get the two tours but any players called up for such engagements must always leave everything on the pitch for both individual and national team benefits. Leagues in Moldova, Iceland, Iran and even Bahrain not only offer better economy to a typical Ugandan player earning Shs700,000 a month in Uganda Premier League but also the exposure due to their proximity to scouts of top European clubs.
In a time of dire economic straits and political disillusionment, football, like many sport, offers a much needed distraction and relief. This is the more reason why the current ‘penchant’ for build-up tours should be the ladder upon which the local federation picks the Cranes from the failure to qualify for the 2021 Afcon finals. Fufa must leverage the opportunities that abound in these tours to grow the national team brand because Uganda genuinely have the talents but the many good players never get that much chance like their counterparts from outside East Africa. As Fufa targets Afcon 2023 finals and a shot at the 2026 World Cup, there has to be the next rungs of ladder in international engagements and that can only be above Tajikistan.
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