Fufa affirmative action on youth is ill informed

The line about youth being the future keeps being thrown around both out of obligation and carelessly. In Uganda, across all spheres of life, evidence points to youth being cynically willed into existence. What with old brooms overstaying their welcome! Sport has particularly tried to blood young talent, but with mixed success.
Across the globe, it has become starkly apparent that the challenges of blooding young blood are as vast as the potential benefits. Sporting outfits have consequently worked tirelessly and obsessively on their craft of becoming a conveyor belt that rolls out fresh talent. A number of them have reaped tremendous rewards by seamlessly pulling this endeavour off. A few others have burnt their fingers. The mixed scorecard suggests that we have a system that would do with a repair job.
In the main, though, the conclusion is that easy fixes are all but impossible to come by. Blooding young talent is no mean feat, which is why Moses Magogo’s Fufa should be commended for making a fist of it. The local governing body seems to have pressed the right buttons when it comes to age grade football. The gains of the Fufa Junior’s League, underpinned by qualification to the 2017 Africa Under-17 Cup of Nations, have been met with rave reviews, deservedly so. The recent capture of the Cecafa Under-15 Challenge Cup in Eritrea will only offer more unstinting support to the claim that things are getting immeasurably better.
Yet rarely discussed and poorly understood - despite its potentially devastating effects -- is the failure of players unearthed to graduate from junior to senior ranks. This past week Fufa’s competition department lifted the lid on a decree it hopes will help trigger a reversal of fortunes. The decree mandates teams in Uganda’s topflight league to have in their 32-strong squads four players that have featured in the Fufa Junior’s League. When the topflight season ends, the four players in question are expected to collectively have under their belt a minimum of 450 minutes on the pitch.
It is safe to say that the decree has aroused fears and fascination in the same way. There are no prizes for guessing those that have found the decree difficult to fault. Most of them appear to want youth and vigour; not old age and a storied life. Which is serviceable if anything because, excuse the cliche, the youth are the future.
The affirmative action has nonetheless got a bad rap with many observers holding that it is hardly organic. Because it is burdened by a tightly pressed enforcement, this attempt at affirmative action seriously risks smacking of tokenism.
Rather than force the hand of clubs, Fufa should continue to create an enabling environment that will keep the conveyor belt rolling. Anything more will unfortunately be seen as draconian.

What we now know....
We know that Busoga College Mwiri had the chance to win a record-extending Schools Cricket Week title when they faced St John’s High School Kauga yesterday. This after they saw off Mukono Parents in a rain-affected semifinal on Friday.
We know that Mwiri proceeded to the aforesaid semifinal not short on confidence. This after the record winners obliterated Makerere College in Budo. Batting first, Mwiri pieced together a scarcely believable 342 runs for no loss of wicket. Openers Ronald Opio and Hassan Mpanuka carried their bats, helping themselves to centuries in the process.
We also know that Mpanuka clubbed an unbeaten 167 off 61 while Opio chipped in with 148 runs not out off just 59 balls. Chasing an improbable 343 in 20 overs for victory, Makerere College -- winners of the event in 1990 -- were all out for 79 runs in 14.1 overs. Mpanuka did significant damage with the ball too, picking four wickets for 15 runs. It’s a match that will go down in the tournament’s annals. This we know for sure.