Foolish!

UGANDA has appointed ten coaches to handle its football team, the Cranes. Unbelievable! FUFA, the body that governs the game in the country, acted rashly last week by firing the coach after defeat. The national team had just succumbed to a 3-0 humiliation at the hands of Togo in an Africa Cup of Nations qualifier at Nakivubo, Uganda's worst home defeat since 1970. The coach, the Nigerian Harrison Okagbue, was shown the door. But he was only the scapegoat, and his replacement by ten coaches was not only obscurantist, but foolish as well. Little wonder it has been met with the derision it deserves, not least in the international media. Nowhere in the world of football has a single team been handled by so many coaches. Even advanced, multi-tiered clubs, that have youth schemes and teams for different age groups would not have such a structure. They may have many individuals who bring different qualities to the team, like a goalkeeping coach, and so on. But FUFA's line-up does essentially the same thing with their respective clubs. This move is symptomatic of Uganda's problems. There is lack of vision; there is cronyism and greed. FUFA is composed of elected delegates who, evidently, do not have any management skills. They are hardly in their offices, turning up only when there is a match. Many are former footballers, who may have excelled on the pitch and are therefore popular, electable public figures. But this should not entitle them to govern the game (Pele, the best footballer ever, has held neither a coaching nor an administrative job in soccer). What Uganda needs is dedicated, qualified managers to run the game on professional standards. These would plan, recruit, manage finances, invest and network, but not resort to simplistic methods. ends