Uganda Cranes carry Nations Cup hopes to the guillotine
Oct 15, 2014
It’s not over yet.The Uganda Cranes have one more opportunity to make things worse, one last chance to burn our hopes.
By Charles Mutebi
It’s not over yet.
The Uganda Cranes have one more opportunity to make things worse, one last chance to burn our hopes.
Today in Lome, the national football team can choose to defeat Togo and stay firmly on track for a much-awaited appearance at the Nations Cup but that would be very unCranes-like. It would be a fairy tale, a Romeo and Juliet affair that ends in a happy marriage.
No, the Cranes do tragic endings, sipping from the poisoned chalice just when the fans start to believe. It’s a remarkable tendency that frankly after three decades has been refined into an art form.
If you can think of any way to mess up a qualification campaign, the Cranes have probably used it.
This time the Cranes used a mixture of complacency, mock politics and timid tactics to spoil a campaign that started with so much promise.
Everyone thought Togo had no right to break Uganda’s Namboole record, then the Prime Minister chose a long and for that matter wrong speech for his Cranes debut before Micho rounded off the mishaps by choosing the wrong apparent team.
By the time Togo, who were quite modest to say the least, secured their 1-0 win, many had seen the writing on the wall.
The standings still had Uganda headed to Tunisia after the Togo reverse but problem is it left the Cranes flying on one wing. The Cranes have a heavily scarred psychology which the first two results helped to bandage. Losing to Emmanuel Adebayor’s Togo yanked off the veil and exposed the sore wound.
Poor Cranes fans! Many thought this was the campaign. In great in anticipation, they packed into Namboole, FUFA permitting them to go way beyond the recommended capacity.
By the way, FUFA are playing with fire by consistently violating the safety regulations regarding Namboole’s capacity. We should not wait for a loss of lives before taking fans’ safety seriously.
Football is not worth the risk. Not at any level and certainly not at the hope-shattering grade where the Cranes abide.
So all the best to the Cranes as they supposedly bid to sustain their Nations Cup dream. And all the best to their fans who believe this might be the year. Just remember real success actually lives at the end of grassroots development and organised league football.
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