In Summary
While Uganda need a refined version of Mwesigwa and a coach that will fully concentrate on his core task, we need a Fufa that has football at heart, a system that can develop youth structures, a system that can stand with clubs, not divide them.
It has been the song every end of an Africa Cup of Nations qualification campaign - going back to the drawing board. Yet we cannot help it.
And following yet another heart-breaking capitulation, thanks to Wednesday’s 2-0 defeat to Guinea, we shall still resort to another drawing board, although we need to first find one.
We shall, among other punishments, watch on television as the 19th Nations Cup finals are staged in Equatorial Guinea.
Ironically, the new hosts were first expelled from the finals for fielding an ineligible player in preliminary qualifiers before bouncing back as hosts after Morocco pulled out.
For a team going into the final Group E match needing just a point to end a 37-year absence from the continent’s biggest soccer showpiece, the Cranes could have done better.
Team captain Andy Mwesigwa, culpable in the run-up to both goals before being sent off, should also have known better before lunging into those reckless challenges.
While he should rightly get the stick for his poor judgment, it would be harsh to blame the entire failure of the campaign on the defender.
Cranes coach Micho Sredojevic himself raised eyebrows with his line-up when he started Vipers youngster Farouq Miya ahead of Kenya Premier League top scorer with 16 goals, Daniel Sserunkuma, despite the latter’s impressive show when he came on against Ghana, in Kampala.
But this is not the first time Uganda Cranes are breaking when it matters most; the 2012 and 2013 qualifiers when the Cranes succumbed to pressure on the last day quickly coming to mind. It is not by accident that we always fail to go that extra step. The problem is deeper than Mwesigwa, even deeper than Micho – although the aforementioned must earn their pay.
While Uganda need a refined version of Mwesigwa and a coach that will fully concentrate on his core task, we need a Fufa that has football at heart, a system that can develop youth structures, a system that can stand with clubs, not divide them.
After the failed 2012 campaign, the then Fufa president, Lawrence Mulindwa, talked of a stakeholders’ symposium to forge a way forward. He quit without holding it.
The current Fufa under Moses Magogo has its work cut out. But their start by pulling out of the under 20 qualifiers and withdrawing the women’s national team from continental qualifiers, claiming they want to concentrate only on the U17s, was the worst sign.
In the aftermath of defeat, it is easy to blame the boys. But we should not shoot them down. It is deeper than them.