Denying fans Namboole entry because of red was ridiculous

Uganda Cranes shall not be going to Russia 2018 because Egypt, the more deserving and better prepared football nation, emerged top of Group E.
Cranes excelled under the circumstances and can’t have played any better than they did in punching way above their weight against the continent’s seasoned powerhouses Ghana and Egypt.
In the end, Uganda’s best wasn’t sufficient. But the country should not be downbeat.
For a team that only qualified for a first Africa Cup of Nations edition in four decades this year, the competitiveness of Cranes in a group where they were pitted in pot 4 is something to be proud of.

Fans turned away
Last Saturday’s real disappointment was not that the team struggled against an experimental Ghana or coach Moses Basena picked the less than ideal line up at Namboole.
It was not even the daylight robbery of the Black Stars who were denied what appeared a genuine winner at the death.
The disappointment was in how politics reared its ugly head into the beautiful game before kick-off. A sizeable number of ticket-holding fans were turned away for committing the apparently treasonable crime of wearing the beautiful colour called red at Namboole.
Late night phone calls from the powers that be had issued directives that the colour called red was a threat to national security and consequently those with non-Cranes red colours were not going to access entry.
You cant help but wonder what Nelson Mandela, for whom Namboole Stadium was named after, made of the disgraceful episode in his grave in Qunu. I witnessed fans denied entry to the ground at 3:45pm stranded and confused.
Maybe, just maybe, it is indeed appropriate that the country did not qualify. You cant be ready to play at the biggest tournament in global sport when such trivialities are still prevalent in a society.
How did we expect to qualify when sport was being victimised for being a crowd puller and source of genuine national pride?
The team will only qualify once authorities acknowledge that the national team is for all citizens and not a paltry section of millions of Ugandans.

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Last week the Ugandan Rugby Sevens team retained the Africa title after a nail-biting victory over Zimbabwe.
It was the latest impressive result for a sport that has reached where it is with hardly any monetary support from the government of Uganda.
Few team sports can match the success that rugby has brought to Uganda.
Eleven years ago the 15s side broke barriers by becoming Africa champions in a feat that will stand the passage of time. Last year in Nairobi the 7s team against odds won the Africa title to earn the ticket to compete on the HSBC Sevens global circuit, where they did not perform poorly against the world’s best sides.
Yet the sport of rugby never gets the cash injections that government reserves for soccer, netball, basketball and athletics.
Rugby is not asking for the billions required in football, the country’s number one sport. Instead its continued success under very prohibitive circumstances is evidence that Uganda can become a world renowned team if the national teams and union were rewarded proportionately to what they have done for the country.

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The Zone V Basketball Championships that ended last week revealed the gulf in class between the haves and have nots.
City Oilers, who successfully defended the title, were carried by MVP Jordan Mayes and the 6’11 frame of A’Darius Pegues whose gigantic frame dominated paints on both ends of the floor.
Ugandan basketball needs to unearth big, tall kids to learn how to play in the paint.
Mayes was exceptional - and fully deserved MVP honours - but his undoubted talent can be honed. What cant be honed is size.
Imagine if Sam Gombya had started playing basketball at 10.

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