Why Fufa’s scheduling of the Fufa Drum event during the offseason is scandalous

Sometimes change is anything but a constant. At a time when conversations around player fatigue and burnout are sparking more substantive change, the ‘rebranded’ Fufa Drum tournament has, surprise, surprise, continued in its old ways.

Rejigged to be played during the offseason, this tournament whose centre of gravity leads one to the conclusion that it is the pet project of Fufa’s top brass could do with a moment of clarity. You could as a matter of fact say that the tournament is the apogee of everything that is wrong with management of Ugandan football. Of which there are many.

Whereas it is plain to see that Fufa will—as is currently on full display—fight until the bitter end, this column joins a growing legion of critics in expressing difficulty of discerning the tournament's purpose. Why would a tournament that has stubbornly remained reliant on players plying their trade in the top echelons of the country's football pyramid be staged at a time they are supposed to be recharging their batteries?

Lest we forget, the offseason should be a time when a player lets their hair down. While demands of staying in shape are sure to linger on, players should have no incentive whatsoever to throw in their lot with yet another rat race. The scheduling of the Fufa Drum, however, ensures that players, including those on the payroll of top flight clubs, pay little or no attention to the recovery-stress balance.

The intention to hammer into players a debilitating guilt for their negligence of predisposing themselves to having the least healthy recovery-stress balance profile faces incredible obstacles. Organisers of the Fufa Drum reportedly dangle juicier carrots than those mustered by many clubs. For players, so accustomed to living in the here and now, the pull toward the lure of wealth more than the activity is overwhelming.

If the long game is played, however, a neat link between recovery and stress demands would be effortlessly drawn. The linkage would consequently raise the possibility, even if only slightly, that the absence of a healthy recovery-stress balance produces—with absurd ease—excessive chronic stress that turns affected players into inadequate vessels during continental engagements.

Given the dim prospects for and the uncertain outcome of players afflicted by emotional and physical exhaustion, Fufa’s insistence of running with the Fufa Drum is quite troubling. In its current state, much like the troubled past the recent ‘rebrand’ sought to shed, the tournament limits options and rarely in ways that better Ugandan club football. 

When the tournament ran—remarkably—in the midst of a season, clubs were relentless in their hatred of Fufa's strong-arm tactics. The local football governing body spared no effort in guaranteeing the success of its latest baby. Players that dared to frown upon the tournament were greeted with threats, some of them not so tacit.

If truth be told, the aforementioned players were bang on. Fatigue and recovery in football is not something to be treated lightly. It has after all been known to lead to reduced accomplishment and sports devaluation. Besides the decrease in physical and match performance, players with punishingly heavy workloads are also prone to suffering injury. Yet Fufa is all too happy to put a strain on the bodies of players entrusted to its care by pencilling in the Fufa Drum tournament when players ought to be resting.

Scientific research drums (pun intended) up the merits of adequate rest. The offseason goes a long way in guaranteeing useful guardrails as regards rest. Why then is Fufa so keen to uprooting this time-honoured architecture? Does the top brass of the local football governing body really have the game’s best interests at heart? Your guess is as good as mine.