Africa-Press – Uganda. It is the same old story of Ugandan sport. A big tournament approaching and the preparations being miles apart. As the Uganda Beach Soccer Association (UBSA) is still nursing the withdrawal of the rights to host the continental showpiece last December, the chance to qualify for the maiden Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) may soon fly out of the window. Apparently, UBSA is not sure when the National League will commence yet the qualifiers start next month against continental heavyweights.
“We intend to have an executive meeting to start planning for the league start. We are concerned that the qualifiers are around the corner yet we are still idle,” UBSA chairman Deo Mutabazi told Sunday Monitor.
Mutabazi, also the first vice chairman of the Africa Beach Soccer Union (ABSU), says the fixtures for the qualifiers may be released this week.
The Sand Cranes dearly missed the annual Copa Dar-es Salaam tourney in December – often professed as the fine-tuning opportunity for the national team.
Unpaid Covid-19 funds
UBSA is also yet to clear the 11 top league teams’ mandated Shs2m Covid-19 relief funds that dates way back to last year.
“We opened up the club account long ago at a fee of Shs250,000 but we are yet to get anything. At the moment we released the players to cater for their own,” Isabeti manager Issa Asiimwe said heartbreakingly.
According to Mutabazi, only Isabeti, Mutoola and Talented managed to forward accounts but they have devised means to pay all the clubs soon through the Fufa finance department.“We have submitted the payment in finance. We hope they will be paid. The delay has been caused by the unpredictable times we are in,” he said.
