Overview:
With investment in the clubs, they can pay players regularly, hire expertise to improve the players, manage modern technology in the game and in the end, we shall have a very good competitive quality national team.
Finally, the TotalEnergies Africa Nations Champions 2024 climaxed on Saturday in Nairobi with Morocco lifting their third title after beating Madagascar 3-2 in the final.
In Uganda, the last match saw Senegal’s Lions of Teranga grab bronze after seeing off Sudan 4-2 on penalties after a 1-1 stalemate in normal time.
The CHAN 2024 Pamoja, hosted by Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya was the first of its kind and the first major continental tournament hosted in East Africa.
For the first time, Uganda Cranes made it out of the group stages reaching the quarter final.
The 35,000-seater Mandela National stadium, Namboole for all Cranes matches was filled to capacity and Ugandans also watched other Group C matches, the semi-final and 3rd place off respectfully.
In a nutshell, Chan hosting was a success but where do we go from here?
It is important to note that government has been fully involved, first with accepting to host, then investment in infrastructure especially training grounds at Kyambogo, Namboole, Kadiba, Mutesa II stadium, Wankulukuku and also Makerere University plus the Hoima stadium and Akii-Bua stadium in Lira for AFCON 2027.
The First Lady, Minister of Education & Sports chaired the Local Organising Committee (LOC), watched a couple of matches live from the stadium and also asked the hard questions especially after the Uganda Cranes 3-0 defeat to Algeria’s Desert Foxes.
Now that interest has been garnered, it is high time the football fraternity led by Fufa to bring the government closer to the game than just presenting the national teams as the ones to be funded by government.
The government, through the National Council of Sports (NCS) already gives Shs. 17 billion to Fufa and all that is meant to be spent on national teams only.
However, the national teams (especially The Uganda Cranes) are only the apex of the country’s game but the academies and the premier league are the base.
Maybe, we can now change priorities and ensure that part of the money from government is invested in the league.
With investment in the clubs, they can pay players regularly, hire expertise to improve the players, manage modern technology in the game and in the end, we shall have a very good competitive quality national team.
We are all aware of the low quality in the Uganda Premier League but it is mainly due to lack of investment in clubs with many lacking basics in a way that they can’t pay players, coaches, train on good pitches etc.
Even the fans that showed up at all Cranes matches never show up at league matches so we need to show them that these very players are the ones playing at Vipers, Villa, KCCA, NEC, BUL and other clubs that play in empty stadia.
It is high time we gave priority to the league and in the end, we shall have a very competitive national team.
In order for the fans to frequent the local club matches like in the 90s and early 2000s, the product has to be enticing enough. Any good players clubs develop seem to leave for greener pastures in other countries immediatly when they become stars. So yes, if the clubs get enough sponsors and thus have funds to pay their players and can afford modern technology, then the league will start booming again and fans will come back. Also the league should find a way to keep around those regional teams from the East and West with huge loyal fanbase. Those teams get promoted then next year they are gone.