Uganda Cranes will host their next TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations Qualifier game against Algeria in Cameroon according to the latest confirmation from FUFA President Eng. Moses Hassim Magogo.
Magogo revealed this on Tuesday indicating FUFA had to find an option to beat CAF’s deadline.
“Today is 25th April and it is the deadline for Nations to submit their host venues to CAF for the next AFCON Qualifier games. And when the FUFA Executive looked at the options available, Cameroon is what we decided to take,” Magogo started.
“We have opted for Cameroon because of several reasons including ease access in terms of travel (Visas), they recently hosted AFCON and therefore have good stadiums and they are willing to give us a friendly match because there are three teams in their group and Cameroon will not have a game in the next window.”
About the promise to have the game played at Mandela National Stadium, Magogo indicated there has been sloppy progress and the work being done is shoddy.
“We had hope and assurance that the game against Algeria will be played at Mandela National Stadium but the progress has been slow and even the basic facilities needed have not been put in place. We had requested CAF to play behind closed doors considering that the pitch and dressing rooms would be ready but even this has failed.”
“As Parliament, we released 97 billion to have Namboole refurbished but I can confirm the people doing the work do not have the capacity to build a stadium and the earlier government realises this,the better. Almost everything that has been done so far is a waste of money,” he stated.
It should be noted that CAF ruled out St. Mary’s Stadium Kitende from hosting games of such magnitude and thus FUFA had to look for another home venue.
Last month, Uganda hosted Tanzania at Suez Canal Authority Stadium in Ismailia, Egypt.