Uganda close to qualifying for World Military Cup

By James Bakama

After several futile shots at FIFA’s big stage Uganda finally has an opportunity to sparkle in another soccer forum.

The chance avails itself in the army where Uganda is just a step away from qualifying for the World Military Cup due next year in Baku, Azerbaijan.

All Uganda has to do is win one of Africa’s five slots at a qualifier featuring 12 teams in Ivory Coast in December. Uganda made it to the African tournament after beating Kenya in the final of the East and Central Africa Military Championship in Burundi in 2010. The competition is organized under the auspices of the International Military Sports Council (CISM). Uganda is hosting the 67th CISM congress at the Speke Commonwealth Resort Munyonyo.

Each of Africa’s five CISM regions will send two teams for the qualifier where they will be joined by the hosts and outgoing champions Cameroun in a battle for four slots. The competition will be in four groups.

World champions Algeria, who beat Egypt in the final in Brazil last year, qualified automatically. Europe has three slots, Asia 4 and America 3.

CISM president told Colonel Hamad Kalkaba told a press conference yesterday that the football competition is one of the products they are promoting. “In these hard economic times, we have to find strategies on how CISM can survive.

Kalkaba started off the day by laying wreaths on the graves of national heroes Yusuf Lule and Igantius Musaazi’s graves at Kololo airstrip. He was later hosted at the Ministry of Defence headquarters in Mbuya by minister Crispus Kiyonga.

CISM, established 1948, is one of the largest multidisciplinary sports organisations in the world. It was founded in 1948.