The on-going Africa Cup of Nations is so one-sided that it can easily be called West and North African Cup, with the likes of Ethiopia, Sudan, Zimbabwe and Malawi being guests. It is absurd that the combination of CECAFA and COSAFA, which have a combined total of 25 member countries, could only afford to qualify four teams to the AFCON of which only Malawi made it past the group stage.
What’s more, the tournament has exposed the gulf in class between Francophone and Anglophone countries. I put this down firstly on the colonial mentality. For instance, whereas the French assimilated their colonies and inculcated a football culture in them, the English didn’t. Just look at the leagues in both countries. The Ligue may not be as strong as the Premier League but it has nurtured thousands of African players by giving them a chance to learn football basics under the French youth programmes right from a young age. It is these players that often shine at AFCON.
On the other hand, the British system does not provide such opportunities to people from former colonies and even the few that break out prefer to associate with the British at the expensive of their native African countries. Even the African star players in the Premier League are mostly French-speaking.
From a Ugandan perspective, our failures are beyond just being Anglophone. Whereas the corruption in Ugandan football is well-documented as the major setback, patronage has emerged of late to dent our football progress. For instance, have you ever wondered why we are always building a national team? This points to a lack of talent coming through from the youth ranks.
At the on-going AFFCON, every team has at least three teenagers with some as young as 16 years yet at SC Villa, for example, we have exciting 21-year-olds but have been deemed to be too young to play for the national team. What kind of hypocrisy is this?
Meanwhile, have you ever asked yourself who even heads the country’s youth programme? Such incompetent people are normally put in those sensitive positions under patronage. There are dozens of able people to do those roles like Andy Mwesigwa, a person who has already proven his worth in grooming youth and can be a real-time inspiration for any ambitious footballer. Or even Hassan Wasswa, a person who has seen it all and can guide a youngster to a professional mindset.
Unfortunately, the FUFA hierarchy overlooks such people because they can outshine the people at the top. In fact, this is so because most of the top-level administrators in Fufa have never played the game or even invested in it. We will continue to be mediocre until this trend is reversed.
IMMANUEL BEN MISAGGA 1st Vice President SC Villa Mobilization and Fans Affairs
