By Peter Nyanzi

There was jubilation, and rightly so, across East Africa when the Confederation of African Football (CAF) announced that Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania would jointly host the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations.

The tournament is to be hosted on East African soil for the first time ever.

However, we must now put the drums away and embark on the hard work of ensuring that we not only pull off a successful event but also have something to show for it many years to come.

A lot has already been said about the need to invest in adequate infrastructure in terms of new stadiums, access roads, training facilities and other amenities.

I will focus on the football side as an industry.

For starters, Uganda Cranes have never progressed beyond the second round, four decades after losing the final to Ghana in 1978!

Also, we only qualified for the showpiece event only a few years ago (in 2017) after 39 years and only won our first game at AfCON 2019 since beating Nigeria in the 1978 semi-final.

We therefore have a great opportunity to change that narrative come 2027. But in order to achieve the elusive feat, the planning has to start now, not next year.

I have a few suggestions to put across.

First, the FUFA technical team must set a realistic or (S.M.A.R.T) goal in regard to how far we should progress in the tournament.

Is it progressing from the group stage to the quarter final or even better?  Whatever it is, we can then start planning backwards.

If our goal is the quarter final, then we must find and recruit a national team coach whose CV includes taking a national team to the level that we want to reach.

It would be shooting ourselves in the foot to recruit a coach who does not have proved AFCON or World Cup experience. 

Even hiring a coach whose previous teams have not played at a major tournament, leave alone going beyond the group stage, would be a complete non-starter.

Additionally, let us recruit the coach well ahead of time so that he gets enough time to work with the national team players, the technical team and club coaches.

Secondly, now is the right time to invest heavily in our grass-root structures so as to unearth new raw talent countrywide so as to feed the national team with young talented players.      

Let’s look at some numbers: The current Uganda Cranes squad is relatively a young team. If we take the team that lost to giants Algeria on June 18, 2023, our starting lineup had an average age of 25 years.

It included only four players under the age of 21 years. However, if the same lineup is to be maintained, it will have an average age of 29 years by the time AFCON is held in 2027.

In comparison, the 2022 World Cup squad for Champions Argentina had an average age of 27, while Senegal, the African Champions, had an average age of 26 years.

The Black Stars of Ghana, who were some of the African representatives at the 2022 World Cup, had an average age of just 24 years, while Morocco, Cameroon and Tunisia all had averages of 27 years and below.

The whole point here is that we need to start identifying talented young players aged below 21 years who will start playing in the various national teams immediately so that they can be between 20-25 years by the time we host AFCON in 2027.

Now, where are our Under 15, Under 17, Under 19 and Under 23 national teams and who have we put in charge of those crucial feeder nurseries for our national team? What plans are in place for involving those teams in international tournaments and friendlies?

Thirdly, FUFA and the Government, through the Ministry of Education and Sports, should immediately lay constructive strategies for national primary school, secondary and post-secondary school football competitions, aimed at identifying and developing raw talent and prospective national team players.

For decades, those crucial competitions have been left in the hands of benevolent private sector companies. The Government has to get involved effective next year.

Lastly, all the clubs that play in the Uganda Premier League should be mandated (and empowered, if necessary), to have Under 15, Under 17 and Under 23 teams to play in their respective leagues.

FUFA should lay down guidelines for ensuring that all clubs set up academies, which would eventually feed into the national team.  

In a nutshell, hosting AFCON 2027 presents an immense opportunity for us to lay a solid foundation for the future of Ugandan football for many years to come.

My prayer is that we don’t miss it.

The writer is a journalist.