Uganda Cranes defied odds to earn a hard fought 1-0 victory away to Cape Verde in the opening game of the 2019 African Cup of Nations qualifier on Sunday.
The gallant team safely returned home, touched down at Entebbe international airport in wee hours of Tuesday (3am)
Upon arrival, Federation of Uganda Football Associations (FUFA) boss, Engineer Moses Magogo did not have any kind words towards government for the meager contribution towards the cranes and sports in general.
“I thank the players and technical team for their continued hard work and commitment shown despite the challenges they went through,”
“It is a pity that the national team continues to be treated the way they are treated. The government has continuously shun its duty of facilitating the national team. For God’s sake these players are representing Uganda not Fufa or Magogo,” he furiously stated before bemoaning the challenges the team had went through ahead of the Cape Verde game.
“You can’t imagine what the players went through before the game. Thankfully CAF allowed to postpone the game but we could have lost those points,” Magogo stated.
Magogo also went ahead to reveal that the team had to spend 30 hours on flight before touching down at Entebbe.
“We have been in transit for over 30 hours moving all over Africa from Dakar to Bamako then Adis Ababa before finally reaching here. But why this entire if we had a government that cares about national teams,”
“We shall not stop reminding the government of its obligation and we have performed whenever they have given us chartered flights.”
A sport in Uganda has continued to work under pea but funding from government. In the recently released 2017/18 national budget, the sector was allocated a meager 12 billion shillings.
Uganda is one of the few countries where federations undertake costs while presenting national teams and athletes to compete internationally carrying the Ugandan flag.
Where support has been provided, it is inadequate, late, unpredictable and dependent on the moods and times.