Feeling for the Ugandan footballers

As the protracted war for league ownership continues to simmer, the main actors have auspiciously been relegated to the periphery of the melodrama. Over 400 footballers are undergoing pre-season training ahead of the 2012-13 league season. But they are most presumably in the dark. They do not know when the league will kick off.

They do not know which league they will be playing. They are hanging in suspense, in the middle of no where. The stories of most footballers in the league are a sorry tale of despair, hope and ambition.

Several young boys take on the beautiful game attemtping to forge a career that may one day shape a livelihood. They love football. They are lucky to earn from something they genuinely enjoy. But like every one else in society, they face demands and challenges of all kinds. Some - the lucky ones - are still at school. But many are failed students.

They are playing football because their parents/guardians failed to raise fees for their education. The stories vary from one footballer to another. There are those who found refuge in the game. Without it, they would have been public nuisances. Then there are footballers in the league whose sole income is their allowance and wages.

On average, a player in the Ugandan league earns not more than Shs100,000 a month. That is the equivalent of $40. It is from that income that a player settles rent, bills, medical and - for the ones with children - school fees. The situation is so dire that there are players who spend the night without a meal.

Football is their sole hope. It is their sanctuary for life. So you can only hope that USL or FSL or whatever name the upcoming league, assuming sanity will see the light of day, will be known caters for the best interests of the footballers. Uganda is probably the only country in the world where officials are glorified more than footballers.

Yet no one has ever paid his dimes to enter a stadium to watch officials kicking the onion bag. We love the game of football principally because of how men (and women) manipulate a ball. Not how grown-up men relentlessly manipulate situations for their own interests.

mnamanya@ug.nationmedia.com