Save Namboole to host Cranes games
Mandela National Stadium, Namboole, the country’s only international sports facility, has failed so many Caf and Fifa worthiness tests that chances of the stadium being barred from hosting fixtures as soon as the coronavirus-enforced lockdown is lifted are dreadfully high.
Caf and Fifa, the continental and international football federations, have already raised the red flag over the worthiness of Namboole in hosting their engagements, citing poor floodlights and playing surface, dilapidated dressing room, and the media tribune, among others.
The national team, the Uganda Cranes, cannot host its World Cup qualifier games at Namboole until the conditions are met.
While St Mary’s Stadium, Kitende, has passed Caf tests and is the only other option for Uganda Cranes, they appear to fall short of the Fifa standards and can only host Caf engagements.
Fufa believes the artificial turf at St Mary’s, coupled with its location and capacity, would negatively impact the Cranes’ near invincibility in homes games as well as fetch less revenue from gate collection or ticket sales.
As a result, the local football federation has recommended that management of the stadium be placed under the National Council of Sports (NCS) – unless there was a vote in the National Budget to maintain sports facilities because Namboole cannot generate resources to sustain itself.
The stadium management admits the state of affairs is gloomy and there is no money to resuscitate it. They say handing over the facility to NCS would not solve anything unless there was steady funding for its maintenance. However, the government has never been known to show such interest in sports.
For a country where one national stadium is turned into a giant mall and another facility paved for a car bond, any suggestions that it can wake up now and start sinking funds into maintenance of Namboole would, at best, remain a pipe dream.
Yet the sports fraternity must never give up. Saving Namboole is a quest that should start now. After the coronavirus pandemic is behind us, the sports fixtures could be clogged and, with Qatar 2022 World Cup qualifiers set for October, the idea of Uganda hosting its games from Rwanda or Kenya is too dreadful for even the least patriotic citizen to fathom.
For starters, Uganda are grouped with neighbours Kenya and Rwanda in the second round of the qualifiers. Fufa says the two countries offer the dreaded alternative of playing away from home. Make no mistake, these are no alternatives; there is only one alternative – to save Namboole.
