It is a public secret that Mandela National Stadium is a disaster waiting to happen given the current state it is in. From operating on a meagre budget which limits the capacity to improve, unpaid rent arrears to fighting with encroachers, the facility can no longer meet the required standards to host International sports events.
At the start of this month, Confederation of African Football (CAF) on recommendation of its officials who inspected the stadium in March this year deemed it unfit to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup qualifiers.
It is upon this background that the FUFA 1st Vice President, Justus Mugisha addressed his concern to the Minister of State for Sports, Hon. Hamson Obua on Tuesday during an online meeting (via zoom) between National Council of Sports and federations/associations whether government has plans to renovate the stadium to meet the required standards.
The Minister in response intimated that government has plans to make phased renovations at Mandela National Stadium.
“In February this year, during my familiarisation tour at the stadium, we realised there are several challenges that must be addressed. As government, we want a stadium that will benefit us in various ways. When CAF stopped FUFA to host games there, we had already made our plans to renovate Namboole.” He said.
Obua added that Namboole is currently operating an old testament stadium yet Uganda requires a facility that meets the modern trends.
“It is true that Uganda needs a better national stadium. What we have at the moment is an old testament stadium but we had already drawn the plan both in the short and long run. There are some things that were highlighted in the CAF report for instance the floodlights, the drainage system, pavilions, the playing surface and the dressing rooms. Some of these can be addressed in the short run.”
However, the Minister did not commit to a timeline on when the facelift will be done indicating there are procedures that should be followed before the actual renovation is done.
“The plan was agreed but we are not putting up timelines for now. We need to go through a process. There must be a thorough assessment on what needs to be done, then present a bill of quantities to the Cabinet, go to Parliament and then a PPDA act applied.”
The Minister will address the media on Wednesday morning at Mandela National Stadium to make more explanation on what government intends to do in regard to developing the facility.
