By Kevin Kibuuka
SC Villa 1st Vice President, Eng. Immanuel Ben Misagga has castigated the Federation of Uganda Football Associations (FUFA) which he says has failed to meet the intended purpose of the African Nations Championship (CHAN).
Misagga expressed his concerns in an opinion piece published online by local news outlet Monitor on Wednesday 18 January 2023.
The former Nyamityobora boss says CHAN was created to give a platform to African based players to showcase their talents to “suitors in Europe and Asia.”
“There was a feeling that Africa possesses a huge pool of raw talent that does not get international recognition and a stage was set up to have them showcase their skills. Indeed, many top African teams used to field mostly European-based players at the Nations Cup, something that had become redundant.” he wrote.
Misagga revealed that FUFA failed to grasp “tournament ethos” and has instead used it as an avenue to show off their footballing might in the region.
“FUFA has continued to view the tournament as an avenue to show Uganda’s might in the sub-Saharan region while at the same time producing meek performances at the grand stage, This can best be described by the fact that no country in Chan history has qualified for the tournament more than Uganda. In fact, we share that unique record of six appearances with DR Congo. Ordinarily, this would be a major milestone to celebrate for FUFA. After all, Nigeria, the country with the most players in Europe, has only qualified for Chan three times. But, as they say, the devil is in the detail. In qualifying for all those six Chan tournaments, The Cranes have never faced a team above its FIFA ranking.”
He furthermore says it has now become commonplace for Uganda to defeat low-ranking teams and thus has failed to qualify past the group stages of the tournament, despite of attending a record six-times.
Misagga argues that the federation lacks strategy for the game. “We are enduring the worst level of league competition, a league where no player has even managed 10 goals at the halfway stage.
Matters are not helped by the fact that The Cranes squad is dominated by players whose career curves are already in negative.”
“So, whereas the north and west African countries use the tournament to groom future stars, we instead use our stagnated players to hope for the best. So, to assume Uganda has a chance to impress at Chan is daydreaming. Chan was ordinarily supposed to be an audition to. The Cranes but the reverse is true. Chan has become an avenue for players seeking to rebuild Cranes careers and this does not bode well with the development of the game where FUFA is more interested in the results than in the progress. So, whereas I can only wish Uganda the best, the approach of seeking to be seen among the big boys is only sinking us into the abyss.”
