Saturday, 27th December 2025 at the on-going African Cup of Nations (AFCON) tournament in Morocco will remain among my red-letter days during this championship.
Following early morning usual rains, the sun eventually came up towards 1 PM, a few minutes away from kick off at the Olympic stadium, the venue where Uganda Cranes lost 1-3 to Tunisia.
This time round, it was Benin against Botswana and the center referee was Ugandan, a female FIFA Referee Shamirah Nabadda.
Nabadda handled the game maturely and professionally with Benin winning the contest 1-0.
The shrewd referee rightfully disallowed a would-be early goal from Benin after an off-side call, quickly calming down the protesting players with the due authority of a traffic officer in charge of a busy highway.
At the Olympic Stadium media tribune, I sat with another Ugandan journalist; a veteran in the industry, Andrew Jackson Oryada.
After the game, together with Oryada, we left for the Al Medina Stadium where Uganda Cranes was to take on Tanzania Taifa Stars in the East African derby.
A handful of Ugandans turned up for the game. Despite the challenging cold weather, they cheered on passionately from start to finish.
The explosive contest ended all square, 1-all with Saimon Msuva scoring the opener via a penalty and burly forward Karl Anthony Uchechukwu Mubiru Ikpeazu finding the equalizer.
Uganda Cranes would have buried off the game had Allan Okello struck home a penalty awarded when James Bogere was felled down in the forbidden area.
The point for the two countries was good enough even the intensity and demands of the game at hand.
Sunday was used as a recovery day for the Uganda Cranes ahead of the travel to Fez for the Nigerian contest on Tuesday.
On the same day it is the Uganda Tourism Board (UTB) organized an outing for the Ugandans in Morocco dubbed the “Ugandan night in Rabat” at the Villa Soraya
The anxiety is building up before the travel to Fez city for the must-win match against Nigeria.
