Nile heads back to the drawing board

By Ssewanyo Kiganda FOLLOWING their relagation to the second division at the end of last year's Nile Special Super League season, Nile FC have gone back to the drawing board. The 1980 Ugandan champions have come out with a five-year development plan that has started with the Jinja side being registered as a public company. Club patron Henry Rudd said: "It is not true we've scrapped the entire team , but we're re-visiting the strategies of building Nile into the great team it's supposed to be and this involves serious planning." In an exclusive interview with the New Vision Tuesday, Rudd said it wasn't true that he had, in his capacity as the Nile Breweries Ltd Chief Executive Director, scrapped the team. Since it was first promoted to the top flight in 1978, Nile F.C has been bankrolled by Nile Breweries Ltd. Rudd said that much as soccer lovers will in the short run miss Nile FC, they should expect something better from a long term plan being worked out. He revealed that South African Breweries (SAB) had contracted Global African Football, a professional soccer management firm based in Johannesburg, South Africa, to draft the Club's development programme. SAB is a share holder in Nile Breweries. "I expect them here in mid march and by June we shall start implementing the programme that must, within five years not only see Nile back in the country's Premier soccer league, but a title winning team," said Rudd. Global African Football are the soccer management firm responsible for handling SAB's sponsorship of soccer tournaments, including the COSAFA Castle Cup and the four-nation invitational Castle Cup, the maiden version of which was won by Uganda in Nairobi last October. "I'm confident that their expertise will be of a great benefit to Nile FC", Rudd said. He revealed that as a starting point, the team has already been fully incorporated and its operations will be modelled along the management of England's Manchester United. Uncertainty had continued to surround the fate of the Eastern giants after their relegation plight, especially since all players were in December paid their salaries and allowances and unconditionally released to join other clubs of their choice. Ends