McKinstry: Cranes coach’s situation remains vague

Sacked. McKinstry leaves Fufa House in Mengo recently. PHOTO | JOHN BATANUDDE

What you need to know:

  • Even Fufa president Moses Magogo is not comfortable yet to officially come out on the Cranes coach’s current status.

Of all parties involved, it looks as though it is only Johnny McKinstry following the script regarding his status. Only that even he will also not directly speak to the media about it.

Even Fufa president Moses Magogo is not comfortable yet to officially come out on the Cranes coach’s current status.
“He is still under assessment and we cannot reveal now,” Magogo told Daily Monitor this week. “We will do so when the right time comes.”

When Fufa asked McKinstry to step aside for 30 days early March, that period was – according to the FA – to help them monitor and assess him so that by March 31, the country knows whether he was still with us or not.
April 10, today, and still that position remains unclear.

SCORE understands that McKinstry met with Fufa CEO Edgar Watson at Fufa House in Mengo on Tuesday and had a lengthy chat.
We were still fishing out for details of the meeting by press time as sources at Mengo remained tight-lipped.

However, McKinstry started shaking tables as soon as April 1. Had he not tweeted late evening of that day, his post would have passed for a Fools Day prank.

“A busy day following up with Uganda Cranes players after their return to their clubs,” tweeted McKinstry, a tinge of cheekiness and defiance rolled in one.
“Planning is already underway for the start of our Fifa World Cup campaign in June when we will kick off our journey to Qatar 2022.”

Mubiru welcomes back McKinstry
Suddenly, something that had never happened – a coach being ‘suspended for poor performance’ returning after serving the ban – was happening, or so it looks.
One of the people to welcome back McKinstry immediately reminded you of what grace and humanity is all about.
“Welcome back coach,” Abdallah Mubiru, the man who replaced him in the interim for the final two Afcon qualifying games, tag-tweeted him.

In an earlier interview with the Daily Monitor, Mubiru had expressed his appreciation to McKinstry, saying they have a very strong relationship.
Meanwhile, some quarters earlier suggested that the reason Fufa had not officially ‘sacked’ McKinstry was because they were not sure about how the government would welcome the news.

More so, because the coach had a year and a half on his contract, and termination would mean paying him off.
National Council of Sports (NCS) General Secretary Patrick Ogwel declined to give his opinion on the situation, saying “let’s be patient until Fufa officially themselves come out on the matter.”

However, other sources at the Sports ministry and NCS told this newspaper that the aforementioned entities will only work with what Fufa present to them.

“While government pays the national coach’s salary, it does not involve itself in the drafting of the contract,” a source, who requested not to be named because they do not speak for the entities, said.

“Government gives Fufa that Shs10b (annually) for the national team and in there the coaches are also taken care of.”
Another source added: “The only communication government got from Fufa was they had asked the coach to step aside for 30 days as they assess [him] and after that they will let us know.

World cup

Uganda is pooled in Group E with Mali, Kenya and Rwanda, and start their campaign away to Nairobi on June 5-8. The 10 group leaders after the round robbin go into home and away playoffs, with the five winners going to Qatar.