This is a moment to savour for our game
Women Empowerment. Uganda is one of the few countries in Africa with a League and Cup competition for women. Photo BY ISMAIL KEZAALA
The life story of most humans is a relentless pursuit for perfection, a steadfast ambition to chase the goals that will deliver ultimate satisfaction. In the hazy maze of that quest, we unknowingly or consciously ignore gains of our dreams.
Pause for a moment and think through the positive developments of football in the country in the last one year.
In September last year the Uganda Cranes qualified for the Africa Cup of Nations for the first time in 39 years. Until that victory over Comoros, that ended four decades of hurt, many of us born after 1978 had wondered if we would live to see the country play at Africa’s premier soccer event.
In January this year, Ugandan football struck two wonder goals when goalkeeper Denis Onyango was voted the Africa-based Caf Footballer of the Year of 2016 before Cranes were voted the Caf Team of the Year.
Both were firsts, monumental honours that augured well for the future of our game.
Onyango received the award at the expense of his talented outfield teammate at Mamelodi Sundowns Khama Billait, which is a rarity in the game seeing how goalkeepers tend to miss out on individual honours.
Back home, back-to-back Azam Uganda Premier League champions KCCA exited the preliminary stages of the Caf Champions League with their heads high and have since gone on to become the first Ugandan club side to qualify for the Caf Confederation Cup where they are doing well. Today they are away to Nigerian side Rivers United.
KCCA have been at the forefront of so many good things; their Philip Omondi Stadium has revived interest in the game for a section of the corporate class because of its proximity, the club has vigorously led the way in embracing social media, structures have been built and adhered to, multiple sponsorships have been signed and results on the pitch have been positive.
Vipers are now empowering structures as the club moves towards less dependency from its millionaire owner Lawrence Mulindwa and multi-million sponsorship deals from Roofings and Hima Cement show a new age imminent for the club previously known as Bunnamwaya. The club boast a glorious edifice in St Mary’s Stadium, an imposing ground whose construction is to be welcomed by anyone associated with the beautiful game.
Last year Uganda resurrected the Cecafa Women’s Championship in Jinja for the first time, a tournament that had become a fossil for three decades. Uganda’s Crested Cranes may not have lifted the title but its hosting showed how high women’s football is regarded by the federation.
In fact Uganda is one of the few countries on the continent with a regular women’s league and Cup competition, organized and managed by the local soccer governing body Fufa. And at the annual end-of-year Fufa awards, the outstanding female footballer of the year gets the same award – a trophy and a car - as the best male player of the season. Meanwhile in May, Fufa president Moses Magogo became the first Uganda to be appointed on the Caf executive committee.
The engineer is the president of the beach soccer and futsal committee and deputizes on the women football committee. Magogo is highly rated by new Caf president Ahmad and Fifa president Gianni Infantino, both of who he voted in the continental and global elections respectively. When Infantino visited Uganda in February, he told President Museveni how ‘Fufa under Magogo was one of the best performing and accountable federations not only in Africa but the world.’
Having Magogo on the Caf Executive Committee bodes well for Uganda as the postponement of last week’s Afcon qualifier in Praia attests. And more good is bound to come the country’s way because of having a Ugandan in such a senior Caf position.
There are many other feel-good developments, such as the Fufa junior league, that can’t be exhausted in this space.
Our game is not 100 per cent perfect. Few things in life are. But the last eight or so months have been littered with so many positive developments, that we ought to embrace and take pride in.
There is no time to rest on our laurels, however.
Harder work lies ahead.
@mnamanya
