The Cranes Must Rise Above Belief In Juju If They Are To Make A Name!
SIR— As many sports lovers in Uganda now know our national football team the Uganda Cranes has once again been bundled out of a major competition.
SIR— As many sports lovers in Uganda now know our national football team the Uganda Cranes has once again been bundled out of a major competition. I am surprised, not by the fact itself, but by the reaction from sports fans. Give me one reason why Uganda deserves to mix with the football elite on the continent!
What have we done to deserve that invitation? We have this bad tendency of allowing ourselves to get into a frenzy, in some cases near hysterical, often whipped up ahead of crucial matches. People get so taken up, so involved, that even those who should know better in our midst lose sight of the bitter truth and hope some miracle will happen.
The success of our national team, if there is one, will not come from sacking and recycling ill-facilitated coaches, hiring men who speak in abstract tongues to prepare a bunch of Ugandan and Congolese players or blame ‘big’ clubs for conspiring to fail the national team.
It is surprisingly obvious, no team can ever enjoy success until it transforms itself into an institution. The Cranes of their days was an institution, Villa has over the years become an institution, KCC was an institution. There are systems for identifying, developing and retaining players. Making those players believe in their own abilities, a cause and most importantly players to have shared values? If these qualities are absent (and FUFA has never cared to try), why are we then so infuriated by the juju claims by these players?
Let’s wake up. The hopelessness of this situation has been there for all to see for the last 10 or so years. There will never be a short-cut to success. Football is not pure luck. There are no quick fixes!
The only way out of this quagmire is to re-focus. Set a long-term goal (8-12 years). But first attract more intelligence into our football administration, galvanise all football efforts and prudently deploy our resources around that goal.
So what do Ugandans plan to do about it? Cry for the Cranes? No!
Baker Magunda
London, UK
What have we done to deserve that invitation? We have this bad tendency of allowing ourselves to get into a frenzy, in some cases near hysterical, often whipped up ahead of crucial matches. People get so taken up, so involved, that even those who should know better in our midst lose sight of the bitter truth and hope some miracle will happen.
The success of our national team, if there is one, will not come from sacking and recycling ill-facilitated coaches, hiring men who speak in abstract tongues to prepare a bunch of Ugandan and Congolese players or blame ‘big’ clubs for conspiring to fail the national team.
It is surprisingly obvious, no team can ever enjoy success until it transforms itself into an institution. The Cranes of their days was an institution, Villa has over the years become an institution, KCC was an institution. There are systems for identifying, developing and retaining players. Making those players believe in their own abilities, a cause and most importantly players to have shared values? If these qualities are absent (and FUFA has never cared to try), why are we then so infuriated by the juju claims by these players?
Let’s wake up. The hopelessness of this situation has been there for all to see for the last 10 or so years. There will never be a short-cut to success. Football is not pure luck. There are no quick fixes!
The only way out of this quagmire is to re-focus. Set a long-term goal (8-12 years). But first attract more intelligence into our football administration, galvanise all football efforts and prudently deploy our resources around that goal.
So what do Ugandans plan to do about it? Cry for the Cranes? No!
Baker Magunda
London, UK