Last week, the Uganda Cranes players went on strike in Cairo Egypt, where they were competing in the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON). They accused officials of the Federation for Ugandan Football Association (FUFA) of plotting to cheat them of their bonuses for qualifying for the knockout stage of 16. Knowing the corruption that has eaten the entrails of our country’s moral fabric, I could not put FUFA above these accusations. I was therefore among those who tweeted highlighting the concerns of our players.
I had sources connected to the players. The players had been paid all their other allowances.
However, they were entitled to a bonus for qualifying for the knockout stage. They feared that if they were knocked out by Senegal, a very strong team, FUFA would not pay their bonuses for qualifying to the group of 16. It was therefore prudent to leak this concern to people on social media in order to raise the alarm, shame FUFA and force it to pay them.
I felt both sympathy and solidarity with the Cranes players given my knowledge, not of FUFA specifically, but of Ugandan officials generally. However, I was later disappointed to learn that the players had gone on strike and refused to go for training unless and until their allowances are paid. I felt that the players had betrayed their professional aspirations, the team and the country. To appreciate my disappointment, and that of millions of Ugandan football fans, it is important to place this strike in its proper context.
AFCON is the most prestigious football tournament on our continent. Uganda had not qualified for it since. For the last ten years, our country has been obsessed with qualifying. Indeed, it would be appropriate to say that it became the most important national goal that united our country. It was therefore gratifying when, in 2016, Uganda qualified for this tournament after 38 years.
There was euphoria across the entire nation. Even the First Lady, who had also been appointed minister of Education and Sports, attended the games, cheered with other fans, tweeted the progress and was in the stadium when we qualified. However, the Cranes performed poorly and did not win a single game and were eliminated in the preliminaries. It was, therefore, even more gratifying when they qualified the second time in a row in 2018. All eyes of Uganda were thus on the team to make Uganda proud.
And the Cranes did not disappoint. They played well and qualified for the knockouts. The whole country was behind them. They made our country proud. Yet it was at the height of their achievement and nationwide popularity that Cranes players foundered. They went on strike over pay. The fear that FUFA officials may not pay their bonus is legitimate. But to go on strike and refuse to play because of this was a blunder. It demonstrated the players’ loss of focus from the main issue to subsidiary ones.
Jaja Walu of Uganda Cranes July 15, 2019 at 12:39 pm
Footballers careers peak between 20 and 30 years of age, when ideally they earn the most.
Besides a good number of Uganda Cranes players are over 30 with little or minimal education, no other skills to put food on the table were any day on the field they could develop career-ending-injuries with no pension, no nssf, or even a family to offer a fallback to position to readjust to a life when football is nolonger possible and clearly they know it much better than any one else.
Criticising the short-term strategy these players exhibited when the demanding bonus pay yet any cynical, intelligent and intelligent person would do the same is unfortunate, uninformed and unjustified and besides it’s said a bird in hand is better than two in the bush.
It’s unfortunate that Mr. Mwenda that you see parallels between Uganda’s rampant political-prostitution and the Rational Economic decision of these underprivileged but talented footballers who have but one shot at achieving the Ugandan dream or forever be doomed to a tragic life.
The political-prostitutes that are causing your Lamentations usually have more doors open to them and failing to earn from every opportunity politics doesn’t doom them for in politics one can earn from day one to forever case in point the dinosaurs in Uganda’s public affairs and H.E Museveni’s cabinet that have been making a living as politicians from Independence day in 1960’s to today.
I agree with Mwenda.its so simplistic to refuse to play,there are many tactics that could have been employed.Definately Magogo and team were much to blame for the corruption and lack of diligence but to refuse to train was like eating poison because a neighbour has annoyed you.Jajja Walu and group should know that football stakeholders are not only players and FUFA.If at all he finds the rest of us irrelevant then he is for a surprise as we shall stop supporting and watching cranes and see if the airtels and others will finance them even an inch.You need to start to see the bigger picture and be advised by knowledgeable people,not just excited goons.
We are informed wanaichi that are looking out for our kind, the down-trodden, who have shared the ups and downs of these boys and don’t care who failed to honor the obligation to our boys only we know that the boys were almost going to get the short end of the stick and had to forceful make a point.
As of you threats not attend Uganda’s Cranes matches, we Uganda’s majority the muntu-was-wansi shall gladly and ablely fill up the stadium and also given that most customers of Airtel are our people(wanaichi) Airtel will gladly continue this advantageous and rewarding partnership.
Eric L and you fellow elites rarely if ever at all go to namboole and so your boycott will have the same impact as Rwanda’s closure of the Gatuna border… negligible.World all over football, footballers and football fans are the common man please stick to rugby, tennis, etc.
The birds are coming home to roost now. That is what comes out of mistrust and faithlessness. What Museveni and his fellow politicians call tactical lies and other ways of lying to gain political capital is in fact erosive and corrosive.
No young man or woman believes anything Museveni says no matter how truthful it is because they have been lied to so consistently for the past many years that they cannot believe anything he says no matter what.
The cranes were right anything now is better than anything tomorrow. You don’t invest in a lace where eviction is 99% probable.
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