Umony tale offers lessons to Fufa, coaches, players

Brian Umony will not be accused of covering up. In his riveting interview with Saturday Monitor’s SCORE at the weekend, the Uganda Cranes striker poured out - not just his well articulated lines - but his heart. He hinted at various impediments to a Ugandan footballer’s dream to succeed professionally in top European leagues.

Prime among them was the lack of a functional system to arrest young talent at budding stage and to follow it through, which has inescapably culminated in half-baked exports that live only to realise late the ‘fruits’ of a phantom foundation. “Here, we play on instinct,” Umony, who – since his move to SuperSport from KCC in 2009 - has endured frustrating stints at Pretoria TUKS, Portland Timber, Binh Duong, Azam and back to KCC, said.

“We play on natural talent, nobody develops that talent. Nobody prepares you to become a professional player. Here the coach will run you the whole day, all year… but that doesn’t prepare you.”
His missive pointed at Fufa, coaches, clubs and tackles general lack of a system he thinks would have benefitted him had it been functional.

Local coaches may not be pleased with Umony’s verdict but their output on the continent mostly vindicates the player, whose early promise some five-seven years ago has been nothing but a disappointment – on the pitch. Maybe they also have not got enough help in furthering their careers.

The 1979 war had left a devastating effect on Ugandan football; a good number of star players from army side Simba and several qualified coaches going to exile. So Fufa at the time, with the backing from Caf and Fifa, requested for technical assistance from the West Germany Football Federation in 1982. The Germans responded by sponsoring 10 coaches to train in West Germany in 1984.

The beneficiaries
George Mukasa (Express); Moses Nsereko (KCC), Sam Kyakonye (Millers), Pare Okech (Maroons), Charles Masembe (SC Villa), Asumani Lubowa (Uganda Airlines); John Semanobe (Nsambya) and Charles Omigi (Coffee) among others were beneficiaries of the first batch.

The programme continued with another batch in 1987. It included Cranes skipper Jimmy Kirunda (Cooperative) John Latigo, Paul Ssali, Phillip Omondi, Tom Lwanga, (KCC FC), Jimmy Muguwa and Dan Lutalo (Express), Dan Lubombo (Simba), Timothy Ayiekoh (SC Villa), and Seruwo Mwanje (Spear Motors).
According to respected journalist Hassan Badru Ziwa, these coaches spent six weeks in Stuttgart undergoing high intensity training.

The training included daily lectures, examinations in technique, rules, sports medicine, methodology, technical approach, oral lectures, demonstration with the youths and adults, essay compositions and leadership. Not that the aforementioned coaches produced stars for professional stints in Europe - bar the exceptional Magid Musisi to France in 1992.

Besides, the exposure at the time was not as is today. But fruits were soon realised as Ayiekoh, for example, went on to win the Cecafa Cup and seven league titles. The local league was also formidable in the 80s and 90s with traditional sides SC Villa, KCC and Express at least making finals, semis and quarters of continental club championships.

But a system breakdown at Fufa after the 1989 polls that ushered in the John Baptist Semanobe executive led to the ‘death’ of this coaching programme, according to Ziwa’s 2010 writings, as the Germans did not want to associate with the failings in Kampala. Current generation coaches like Mike Mutebi, Sam Ssimbwa and George Nsimbe among a few others have also been trained in Germany. Brazilian trained Sam Timbe also ranks up there having won Cecafa club cup with four different sides. But they need proper systems to work with.

In all, poor standards of coaching are inescapable. That, coupled with questionable administration, has not helped the quality of football. Clubs are no longer clubs; just a collection of players who kick the ball about. No defined structure or academies to see though talent.

Barring a few cases of an Ibrahim Sekagya succeeding professionally, most stories have been Umony-like, even worse. While Fufa can still reignite a coaching regime – based on merit, not political favours; local coaches should also take it upon themselves to improve themselves. It’s also high time ‘clubs’ invested more in developing themselves than fighting federation wars.

Footballers too, Umony inclusive, should learn to take own initiatives. They should learn not to only blame the system, but to borrow from Sekagya’s patience of enduring in the third-tier of the Argentine league to the high earning Red Bulls contract in the Major League Soccer (MLS).

Actually, few of Ugandan coaches, players and significantly – Fufa, can rhyme to Drake’s ‘Starting From The Bottom (now we’re here).’ It’s rocking on Sekagya’s player as you read.

Local squabbles manifest by ring side, on track

It is not all tumult at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland for Uganda as Abraham Kiplimo has already snapped up bronze in the marathon. Boxer Nassir Bashir also defeated Tanzanian Emiliani Polino to qualify for quarters while Michael Ssekabembe to beat Ghanaian Haruna Asumanu in the quarters. But controversy in the said disciplines has not escaped scrutiny. First, In a ddition to not taking corner men, Bombers coach Dick Katende was denied access to the ring side.

It turns out that World boxing amateur body, Aiba, dictated that only three-star coaches can access the ringside, which out-rightly ruled out one-star Katende.

Now, Uganda have no coach in the three-star category as the classifications were done between 2009 and 2013 when the country had no legitimate federation to nominate candidates; which poses the question.
For all the time they had to prepare a team for the Games, did the Uganda Boxing Federation (UBF) bother to find out rules of the competition they were going for? We now know the answer.

And while we are at it, Denis Opio missed out on a chance to announce his arrival on the world stage because some sleepy-at-work Uganda Athletics Federation (UAF) official, who arrived in Glasgow two weeks ago, was late to register the runner’s name on 400m flat race start list. We should be awarded for these feats.

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