Cranes: Hope for the best and prepare for the worst
On Wednesday, Ugandans will know the composition of the group in which their be-loved national football team will feature during the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations finals. The draw will take place in Libreville, Gabon, with Uganda going in Pot 4 alongside To-go, Zimbabwe and Guinea-Bissau. Uganda cannot draw any of the three countries giving it company in Pot 4. Instead, fin-ger nails will be bitten as heavyweights like Algeria, DRC, Egypt, and Ghana, to mention but four, are handpicked from the other three pots.
Cranes coach Milutin ‘Micho’ Sredojevic has advised Ugandans to fasten their belts in preparation for the bumpy road ahead. Speaking at a Fufa media conference this past week, Micho warned that chances of the wheel of fortune handing Uganda a ‘group of life’ are slim. A group of death looks highly probable. This, though, does not mean that Uganda will make up the numbers in Gabon next year. Far from it. “We won’t merely be participants,” Micho says.
Do not expect The Cranes to go for the jugular in Gabon either. The 2018 Fifa World Cup qualifier away to Ghana that ended goalless snapshotted how Uganda will line up against illustrious opposition in Gabon. The Cranes will crowd the midfield and look to counter swiftly whenever the opportunity presents itself.
Micho the coach has always been a realist as opposed to idealist. This trait has not en-deared him to purists.
When the Serbian was still learning the ropes of coaching in Africa, he cared a great deal about how he was perceived. He, for instance, snubbed a handshake from Jan Fray when the then KCCA coach dared to say that Micho was in tune with Serbian football’s ultra defensive tactics. That was in the buildup to a derby match with SC Villa.
Greyer, a bit mellower and closing in on his 50th birthday (due in September of 2019), the Serbian knows better than to lose sleep over what people think of his tactics in big matches. He came in for criticism in sections of the Ugandan media for playing for a draw in the north Ghanian city of Tamale. His response to the charge that he “parked a bus” was that “the end justifies the means.”
During this year’s African Nations Championship in Rwanda, Micho was asked why he does not shoe-horn many attacking players into his lineups. The 47-year-old coach said having Muzamir Mutyaba and Keziron Kizito in the same starting XI “turns our field into an express highway.” Pragmatism is the name of the game for Micho, and it will continue to be so.
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Zeno debacle leaves URU with egg on face
The Facebook status update has just 21 characters, which is short even by Twitter’s brevity-obsessed standards. There is no great secret to, or difficulty in, deciphering the message of the status update. Responding to some kind of bodyblow, the writer dwells on “that awkward moment when a litre of diesel costs Shs 2800, and half a litre of beer Shs5000.” Why, the writer asks darkly, waste the beer?
Ugandan club rugby has in the past week been tearing itself apart over the writer of the aforesaid Facebook status update. Those who know Zeno Owora Othieno well will tell you that his terse Facebook status update was not self-deprecating. That Zeno loves the bottle is but an outrageous slur. He has been repeatedly warned that his love for the bottle will have a damaging impact on him. That he will be seriously wounded and by the bottle’s own hand.
Although the odd fears about Zeno, in a drunken stupor, putting his finger in the eye of traditionalists have always abounded, no-one forecasted the lengthy ban that has put a huge question mark on his playing career. Yes, Zeno plays for topflight rugby club Warriors as an open side flanker. Gabriel Aredo, one of the team’s cerebral players, has described Zeno as a “leader of our forwards.”
Uganda Rugby Union (URU), the guardians of the oval ball game in this part of the world, view Zeno in a decidedly different lens. Much discussed is the dark shadow that Zeno’s actions cast over the sport in June of this year when he reportedly doused an official of the visiting Namibia rugby team - the Welwitschias - with an alcoholic beverage. The matter was brought before URU after being witnessed by a member of its top brass as well as one of its venerable referees.
No wrongdoing
Zeno categorically denies any wrongdoing, thus his laconically cheeky 21-character Facebook status update. Two Saturdays ago, he had gotten up and tweeted the Hima Heathens Twitter handle.
A Uganda Cup quarterfinal pitting both sides against each other was scheduled to be played that day at Kyadondo. Zeno’s message to Heathens was simple: “You are going down.”
He clearly had no clue whatsoever that URU had rubber stamped a 24-month ban on him in days leading up to the match.
Aredo, who poetically says Warriors stands with Zeno because “you’re only as strong as your weakest link”, adds that the first official communication the club got from URU about the 24-month ban was delivered minutes before the quarterfinal cup tie. “We were warming up when [Sam] Nikoma handed me the letter. How do you do that!” Aredo laughs. URU proffers a contrasting account. It holds that Aredo’s big brother and Warriors manager, Erasmus was brought up to speed. Zeno, it adds, obstinately refused to attend disciplinary meetings when summoned. Warriors and Zeno hotly dispute this.
This sorry episode started, is playing, and will probably end on social media. It started there because it was on the instant messaging platform of Whatsapp that URU chief executive, Ramsey Olinga casually informed Erasmus that “one of your players has been banned.”
When Erasmus told Olinga that this was rock science to him, the chief executive requested for the Warriors manager’s email. What Erasmus got electronically shortly after was the rubber stamped guilty verdict for Zeno from URU.
Procedurally, every rule in the book was broken by URU. There’s no scintilla of evidence to show that the accused was sought out for inclusion in disciplinary proceedings. Evidence adduced by witnesses appears to a classic case of ‘my word against yours.’ Worse still, the appeal process was in a way disavowed.
Crack the whip
Word on the grapevine is that URU was under pressure from Rugby Afrique to crack the whip. That failure to do so would jeopardise Uganda’s participation in the revamped six-nation Rugby Afrique Tier 1A tournament. $10,000 (Shs34m) still needs to be paid as a participation fee, and Warriors have promised to add to the migraine that the pursuit of the money will doubtless bring. “We have a good working relationship with [URU]. Our prayer is that this spat be resolved amicably, but we won’t be arm twisted,” Erasmus says.
Diesel might be cheaper than Zeno’s favourite drink, but turns out URU cannot afford it. Running on fumes is what URU is doing when it comes to management of issues.
