IAAF event evidence Uganda can host global competitions

Tomorrow, the eyes of the world will be at Kololo when the 42nd IAAF World Cross-Country Championships take place.

Few things unite and sell a society better than sport and the huge athletics competition, which has attracted 59 countries, will go some way in dispelling the myth that Uganda cannot host international sports events. Make no mistake the amount of work that has been put in is not choir practice.

Members of the Local Organising Committee (LOC) have had a rough couple of days securing a last minute release of government funding to tie up one or two loose bolts ahead of tomorrow. The oddity as always is that while we sports lovers see financial support for the IAAF World Cross-Country as a no-brainer given what Uganda stands to benefit as a tourist destination and economically, there are decision makers for whom the whole idea of an international competition converging in Kampala to do battle doesn’t make a lot of sense.

But the IAAF event being a starter, you pray and hope that it will break new frontiers for sport in Uganda especially in the way the sector is perceived by government.
President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni has been insistent on the issue of sports having to bear with other competing needs in society like education and health. He told Fifa president that with the discovery of oil, the country would be in a better position to support sports. Maybe we can start bidding seriously for global competitions like the International Cricket Council Division III World Cricket League, The African Nations Championship (Chan), AfroBasketball, Africa Cup of Nations (Can) and the All Africa Games (AAG).

With such events, the country would get better advertising value than spending billions for adverts on CNN.

Tomorrow I will be at the Kololo Independence Grounds to partake in the history of arguably the biggest global sports event to have come to the Pearl of Africa.

Maybe, just maybe that will be the beginning of an era where Uganda can actively and competitively bid for competitions of that magnitude.
Best of luck for Team Uganda!

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KCCA management superb
We were all dismayed by the manner in which the KCCA management did a bungled job at the club’s Azam Uganda Premier League (AUPL) showdown with Onduparaka.

Then the gates had been such a spectacular mess in a match that also saw KCCA fans provoke Onduparaka’s Green Army into a skirmish.

The club got its comeuppance in the ridicule that was hurled in its way by fans and journalists. The sight of fans literally fighting and stepping on one another to make their way into a match they had paid for was an unfortunate sight.

Those scenes had also happened when SC Villa visited early in the season. Last week though, management of the Phillip Omondi Stadium in Lugogo was very good.

With Mamelodi Sundowns in town for a match whose tickets were a hot seller, there was a looming fear that demand was going to outstrip supply.

In the end the supply more or less matched the demand and the fans who made it to Lugogo left with few if any complaints. It is only fair that the KCCA management get their due credit.

I have been disappointed on many occasions by the manner in which gates are mismanaged at Nakivubo (RIP), Namboole and recently the Lugogo stadium.

It always baffled me how a routine job of stadium access must be twisted into rocket science. Increasingly it reached a point where I had resigned my displeasure at the gates for big matches and conceded that the Ugandan way of mediocrity would prevail all the time.

It helps that KCCA are a club conscious of their brand and will listen to advice that can improve their image.

The 1-1 result dampened the day but for the club, there was satisfaction in successfully demonstrating that adequate planning can ensure value for money for the fan right from the gate to his or her seat.