Fufa consult stakeholders over national philosophy, style

Fufa have broken down the pillars of running football in the country to three. There is the business side, the governance element, and then the sporting aspects.

In their own appraisal, and many would side them, they have done exceptionally well in business and governance.

“In governance, we can say that we are at 90 percent performance, while in business, we are running well according to our budget,” former international referee and Fufa executive committee member Ronnie Kalema, said at a stakeholders’ engagement at Jevine Hotel, Rubaga to discuss elite talent development – a pillar of the federation’s technical master plan.

“It is in sport where we have a problem. We have been operating in silos and having coaches that are teaching different skills," Kalema said.

Fufa has existed for 100 years and for the majority of that period paid lip service to player development. That has left five concerns, which president Moses Magogo presented as questions to kick off the workshop.

Guiding questions

He sought to find out why technically gifted players are missing more games today than in the past, and where the tall giant players have disappeared to. He also asked why Uganda, unlike its neighbours Kenya, Burundi, and Tanzania, have never had a single player in the top five European leagues in Spain, England, Italy, France, and Germany.

Answers ranged from the lifestyle of players, lack of serious connections, wrong training at an early age, competition from elsewhere, infrastructure limitations, and lack of tactical awareness and mental toughness.

“Our players have the technique and physical build and that is why the scouts come here. But when we go abroad, there are things that they expect a player who passed through the right stages of football to know and we don’t. Also, when we get paid, we start to miss the life at home and mess up,” former Uganda Cranes captain Tonny Mawejje, said.

Another former captain Hassan Wasswa was also prompted to share a story on how he left Turkey, where he played for Karabukspok, Altay, and Kayseri Erciyesspor, to return to local side KCCA.

“I was losing (perhaps $) 10,000 in deductions on my salary and remaining with ($)2,000 before I could take care of my expenses like rent, food, and others. So, I decided to return home rather than stay without being paid. But when you look at our Nigerian brothers, they do not care if they do not get paid, they just play football,” Wasswa shared.

Before he asked for what could be the most suitable style of play for Ugandan football, Magogo asked what competitive advantage Uganda had over other African countries and encouraged the stakeholders to “critic the philosophy and curriculum that we have developed as much as possible so we can have a refined plan”.

In the room, most speakers struggled to define the advantage on pitch but the strengths pointed out by Burundian Dominique Niyionzima, Fifa’s regional technical consultant, included “progressive leadership at the the federation and organizational structure in school sports,” although Fufa vice president Justus Mugisha, who also doubles as the president of Uganda Secondary School Sports Association (USSSA), said the school structures are undermined by a lack of coaches who understand what they are doing.

“I believe we have innate technical skills on the ball,” Eddie Butindo, of Friends of Football, said before adding that “we need to play football where we are patient in possession and fast in transitions.”

Gibby Kalule said the answers are in our past stars. “When you look at Brian Umony, he played with speed and intensity while our midfielders like Wasswa and Mawejje were patient. We need to build on such aspects.”

Player development

Fufa, with the help of Fifa in a study led by Arsene Wenger for all federations in the world, have established three areas for elite talent development. A player must be found, trained and then given an opportunity to play. The demand for players is expected to grow with Fifa pushing for an annual U-17 World Cup with the U-15 version also expected to be launched soon.

In April, Fufa trained scouts and established an online platform, where they can enter details about players. Some scouts like Nimrod Kintu have since entered about 79 profiles in the database. These scouts are trained to work at different levels; the grassroot community, regional, and national level. Another 500 people, including 40 from Kampala, have registered for the next basic scouts training according to Fufa’s football development director Ali Mwebe.

“It would be hard for a player to come through the system and they have not been spotted at one time by one of these scouts,” Mwebe said.

That in itself makes it paramount for the player to be coached rightly.

United like ants

“The most fundamental element in Uganda is unity. When you look at family, religion, tribe, Ugandans are united along many lines,” Petros Koukouras, one of the principle developers of the national philosophy, shared.

“Because of unity, our star player will be the team and not individuals. And our style of play will be ANTS. We need aggression both in the attacking and defensive phases; be that pressing, runs in the box.

“Then we need numbers in as many areas as possible; buildup, combinations in midfield, attack. And everything we do must be timed; controlling the tempo of the game, accelerating play. Lastly, we must understand space; how we create space, deny space, occupy space,” former SC Villa coach Koukouras said before sharing the player development curriculum.

Fufa’s plan is timely. Not only does the new Sports Act push federations to be active in 75 percent of the country – a feat Fufa should be able to evidence with a strong scouting network – but also the new school curriculum pushes for classes to end by 3pm so students in secondary school can be engaged in co-curricular activities for the better part of the afternoon.

Suffice to note that Fufa are targeting the secondary school-going child for this elite development. Fifa gave them 66,000 balls for the Football for Schools project earlier this year but the emphasis for that is the Primary Schools, where Fufa want to concentrate on just giving young children a chance to play.

“The philosophy is a way of life and I would like to connect every principle of play to an aspect of life in a simple way,” Mujib Kasule, the director of Proline, said.

Magogo also said they “need to answer if we need to first get players before establishing a philosophy. Or create a philosophy then create the players for it. The chicken and egg story!”

The concerns

Fufa vice president Justus Mugisha wondered like many if all clubs and schools “are going to be forced to play the same way. Won’t having a philosophy make us predictable and therefore become a disadvantage?”

Kasule answered that “yes, we will be predictable but you cannot be stopped because you are a master of what you do.”

There might also be many ways of doing the same thing. Think of Spain, who believe that for as long as the opponent does not have the ball, Spain cannot lose. They therefore coach all their youth products to be comfortable in denying the opponents the opportunity to play. that does not necessarily mean that Atletico Madrid will hog the ball the way Barcelona do.

Or Italy, who believe that for as long as they are not conceding, they will have an opportunity to win. That does not mean that Inter Milan, who can press you to dizzying heights, are going to defend the box the way prime Juventus were wont to do. But both will close spaces.

Others asked if developing a philosophy will not kill creativity or kill individual brilliance.

“A philosophy is a general principle. There can be variety in how you do things and you have to teach all things. But dribbling past three people when there is someone to pass to is not creativity,” Koukouras also added.

Mindset shift

With a favourable school schedule now, the biggest challenge to player development now could be mindset and a lack of infrastructure.

“There is a lot of time in school now because of the new curriculum. However, some schools have 7,000 students with just one pitch so we need advocacy in schools on development of facilities. But Physical Education (PE) is examinable now. In fact it has electives so students can choose what sport they want to play and they can be examined in it.

“However, the education is done by PE teachers and although I have a lot of respect for Edgar Watson (Fufa CEO) and what you know about football, schools are not going to allow you (football or sports coaches) in to teach PE. What we need to do is cooperate with universities and National Teachers College to ensure that teachers have the right knowledge. Or maybe send ex-internationals to become teachers.”

Magogo said, they have to fight for this space (to allow coaches into schools). Kasule then added that “the biggest issue is mindset because people still think sports is a danger to academics. We still have parents who do not want their children to go for sports when they are in a candidate class because of exams.”

Magogo also explained that “ahead of (a World Cup qualifier) Algeria,” he had to wait for “Denis Omedi to complete an exam and despite the player finishing early, the school could not release him until others finished. He ended up not starting that match yet he was in the coach’s plan.”

Coaching improvements

While there were no ready answers for a mindset shift, Fufa has some for the coaching aspect. Fufa intends to introduce seven coaching badges. These are in descending order and Level 7 will be basic with coaches free to teach in a local language and not to have any academic qualification

However Level 6 coaches will require a Primary Leaving Education certificate. At Level 5, one should have completed Senior Four and also have at least a Caf D license, which players on the national team also have an opportunity to earn.

At Level 4, one must have completed secondary school education but must also have extra qualifications say in the fields of management, business, sports or possess extra skills say in information technology, counseling and guidance, psychology, or languages. Level 4 coaches can also specialize in a particular area of coaching be it attacking, defence, youth or goalkeeping among others.

“If this is the direction we have decided to take, we need to encourage football players to attend school. We all know these people do not like being in school but if they must have these qualifications, we must confront and encourage players to stay in school and perform,” Vincent ‘Titi Camara’ Tumusiime, who coaches Kampala University, said.

Christopher Mugisha, the CEO of Uganda Secondary School Sports Association (USSSA) and coach Matia Lule emphasized the need to have coaches who understand and have experience in the game at the school levels.

“There can be no shortcuts at this crucial stage. If you want to have coaches in schools then they should be those that know what to do,” Mugisha said.

Schools of excellence

To address all issues, Fufa has picked 12 schools in its eight regions to act as schools of excellence to teach the national philosophy. They will have the best of talents in their regions.

These according to Mwebe “will provide pitches and bursaries to the scouted players” while “Fufa will pay the coaches, provide all necessary equipment, and  a structured programme for group and individual development.”

“A student spends 270 days at school and just under 100 at home for holidays. So we cannot wait for them to come home to join an academy and work on this philosophy. We are therefore taking the academies to where the children are,” Mwebe added.

Meanwhile, Magogo emphasized that “we are not stopping any school or academy that wants to enroll these talents. Anyone can apply to teach this philosophy but we are concentrating on these 12, and only secondary schools or children of say age 13, because doing more will overstretch us budget-wise.”

"We are coming from nothing to this so let us start with what we can manage. I hope that every year we can have such a meeting of football stakeholders to review, criticize, and improve this philosophy.”

In a sideline interview, Magogo said, “this is something that we might not have to finish. Another group (of Fufa leadership) will come in and make amends but we want to believe that in seven years, we could start seeing the benefits of this decision.”

Pillars of Administration

Business

Governance

Sports

Elite Talent Development

Find

Train

Play

National philosophy: Unity

Unity in aggression, numbers, time, space

Schools selected as centres of excellence

Boys

Kibuli SS – Kampala Region

Mvara SS – West Nile Region

Teso College Aloet – North East Region

Gombe SS – Buganda Region

Nganwa High School – Western Region

Kabalega SS – Kitara Region

Jinja College – Eastern Region

St. Joseph's College Layibi – Northern Region

Girls

Kawempe Muslim SS – Kampala Region

St. Katherine Girls – Northern Region

Masaka SS – Buganda Region

Nyakasura SS – Kitara Region