Mark Namanya
10 October 2008
opinion
There are things that cannot be changed, regardless of whether you are Barack Obama or the beggar at the T-junction between Entebbe and Kampala road.
You can't change your history neither can you get a new father and mother when you so wish. Surgery allowed, you cannot become white when you were born black and vice versa.
And if you are Ugandan, you have no alternative but to support the Cranes against Benin's Squirrels at Mandela national stadium, Namboole tomorrow. Like everyone, I have grown tired of getting disheartened by our consistently shambolic Africa and World Cup qualification campaigns.
In my life time, I have not witnessed the national team qualify for a major tournament. I can vividly recount the near-misses of the last two decades, the good generations of players that should have represented Uganda at the Nations Cup and the fundamental inadequacies of all regimes of the local soccer governing body. The country has not forgotten the 1991 scandal of SC Villa players William Nkemba and Magid Musisi missing a crucial qualifier away to Zaire, Adam Ssemugabi's penalty miss against Nigeria in 1993 and Rwanda shocking Uganda 1-0 at Namboole five years ago in the most chaotic international match in the history of Ugandan football.
Despite the depression associated with everything related to the national team, Uganda Cranes is like our father and mother. There are a few things that make one proud to be Ugandan, and Cranes is one of them. The Ugandans in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Australia, South Africa, USA, United Kingdom, France and Germany are keenly interested in the progress of the national team.
They love Cranes because the 11 players lining up against another country symbolise the 28 million people in Uganda. Cranes' chances of reaching the next round of the qualification phase are no longer hanging on a thread; they are extinguished. Should Cranes somehow qualify, that will probably be the greatest miracle since the shoot-out win over Malawi in the 1989 East and Central Senior Challenge Cup.
Ugandan fans do know that the national team is not going to make the next round. But shunning the match, as some have suggested, smacks of inanity. The match against Benin is one Uganda must win as a token of thanks to the fans who have supported the team since the opening triumph against Niger on May 31, and the players are fully aware.
A resounding defeat of the Squirrels tomorrow would be consolation enough for a campaign that promised so much and delivered so little, and it can't be achieved without the power of the 12th man.
We must support Cranes vehemently once more as we have fabulously done in the last five years.
Mayanja, Ssimbwa...!
They were dismissed by the federation and replaced by Sam Timbe and David Otti early this year. A few months down the road, Jackson Mayanja and Sam Ssimbwa are back in the fold to assist new coach Bobby Williamson.
Either Mayanja and Ssimbwa have improved tremendously in just over five months or the federation belatedly discovered that it had erred in dismissing the two after the exit to Tanzania in the Africa Nations Cup qualifiers for the home-based players.
The murky mode of sacking and reinstating the two is in line with the many mistakes Fufa has committed in the last couple of years to successfully curtail its attempts to clean up the game.
What are the odds of Mayanja and Ssimbwa holding those roles this month next year?
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