Uganda Cranes' players sleep at 'building site'

UGANDA CRANES | FOOTBALL | TRAINING

Uganda's most funded sports body, FUFA, is facing a lot of criticism after disregarding the comfort of the senior Cranes' squad in camp that faced South Sudan yesterday (Thursday) at St. Mary's Stadium in Kitende in a 2021 Africa Cup qualifier game.

Poor lads, no wonder they struggled to beat one of the lowest FIFA ranked teams in the world 1-0, at home. The Uganda national team was camped at a barely known hotel in Kisaasi, adjacent to Kisaasi College School.

The hotel, which is still under construction, is sandwiched between residential houses and finding it is akin to searching for a pin in the grass as there's no signpost.

According to FUFA, the hotel is suspiciously yet patriotically called Cranes Paradise Hotel.

The suspicion might be a matter for the IGG or Edith Nakalema, the head of the Anti-Corruption Unit of State House, so we shall just reflect on the players' complaints about the accommodation offered to them ahead of national duty.

The last time the national team complained about accommodation was in 2018 when they checked in at Jokers Hotel in Bweyogerere.

Here, towering players complained about small and short beds, plus the noise from the neighbourhood.

Fast forward, they are not complaining about noise and small beds. They are complaining of staying at a "building site", like someone intended to book them into a hotel, but was led into a hovel.

They are also complaining of poor hygiene at the facility.

It is mostly the professional players, who are used to five-star hotels while representing their clubs, who are complaining of this.

Some of the players we talked to claimed to have been forced to use the same towels for days as management would take long to replace the used ones. 

With training sessions and practise twice a day, the players washed their training kit most of the times.

Throughout their stay at the facility, it conspicuously hang on the balconies.

"This is a joke; we understand the financial hardships, but you can't give us top class treat in Dubai and then treat us like struggling school children at home.

Imagine we have to use the same towel for days and pray that the hotel staff change the bedsheets when we get back from training," a player lamented to the Kampala Sun.

Essentially, with COVID-19, the thought of sleeping in a hotel room where countless people have stayed may hold little appeal, unless one has their own towels and some linen to cover the bed.

Next time players are called to camp for national team, a note requesting them to carry towels and bedsheets may come in handy. 

No gym, swimming pool

In professional sports, swimming is a great way to recover after strength training.

It even helps clear the head ahead of a match, but all this is not in place for the players.

There is neither a swimming pool nor gym at the hotel.

On our visit, we realised that they are under construction at the extension wing of the hotel.

Well, this was not the case with the South Sudan national team players, who checked in at Imperial Botanical Beach Hotel in Entebbe, a four-star facility with an enclosed swimming pool, gardens and Lake Victoria shoreline that comes with an enviable breeze.

This is a case of giving chicken to the visitor and serving your children beans and telling them to hide while eating.

"If you want to do some extra workout, you do so besides your bed or in front of the gate. We are sleeping in an apartment, not a hotel, but they gave us a deaf ear when we raised the issue. 

 The motive behind us staying here is evil because these are things we used to brave some years back during away fixtures," complained one of the Cranes' players.

In the past, the visiting team was the responsibility of the host nation.

The host nation took care of the visiting team's needs, ranging from transportation to accommodation during their stay.

However, with consistent complaints of foul play by visitors (poor accommodation in far-off places from the stadia), rules changed and now visitors take full responsibility of their stay.

Comparing Imperial Botanical Beach Hotel to the one in Kisaasi, the Cranes looked like the visiting team.

Back to Kisaasi, where even Google Maps might fail to trace Cranes Paradise, on Tuesday when we visited the place to confirm the allegations made by players, we found builders at the extension wing and a man fixing the windows of the rooms occupied by the players.