Author Archives: Ben Mwesigwa

Forced Membership!

Uganda Football Coaches Association (UFCA) is a member of the Federation of Uganda Football Associations (FUFA).

UFCA struggled to attract coaches as members so they decided to find a way of having competition regulations amended in their favor to ensure that football coaches involved in FUFA organized tournaments pay membership fees to be granted a practicing license.

Like all decisions that aren’t well thought out, it wasn’t sustainable because the number of coaches licensed to work is far less than the actual number of coaches.

UFCA came up with another idea. They are proposing to ensure that every time a coach has to go for an advanced coaching course, fully paid membership with UFCA will be one of the criteria used to be admitted into the course.

Again another decision that isn’t well thought out. It won’t be sustainable because there’s usually a two-year gap between coaching courses and the majority of coaches drop out of courses.

UFCA has failed to invest time into finding out why they struggle to attract members, they resort to hijacking them into forced membership.

UFCA has failed to take responsibility for low membership numbers, they resort to blaming coaches for lacking solidarity.

WHY IS UFCA STRUGGLING TO ATTRACT MEMBERS?

For any person to be a paid member of any association, they need value in return for what is being paid. It’s that simple.

UFCA offers no value or struggles to offer any meaningful value to its members. If they did that, current members would have a lot of positives to share.

There’s a time I wanted to join UFCA, I was invited for a meeting that started with a debate about drinks, after 45 minutes of the debate, I’d had enough and left football coaches debating about drinks.

It’s almost 10 years since that incident, basing on observations from current UFCA members. I highly doubt I’ve missed anything from UFCA that adds value to me as a football coach.

WHAT SHOULD UFCA DO BETTER?

Corporate governance is the solution for UFCA. UFCA can adopt a system of governance that members use to vote a board of directors that appoints an executive to run the day to day business of the association.

In modern football business, if any football institution is interested in being self-sustainable then it’s imperative to have employees that work full time to think of ways to make the institution better.

Good governance is essential for a football institution to be managed effectively and to demonstrate accountability and transparency.

Values are at the core of good governance, but it is brought to life by leadership, direction, and supervision, by the people who have the right skills and experience for their role.

By adopting principles of good governance, it will benefit UFCA in terms of engaging the trust of all stakeholders.

Good governance will not in itself ensure success, but it should improve UFCA’s management, support its reputation, and most importantly, help secure UFCA’s future and its sustainability.

Example: In Uganda, most coaches aged 30 and above struggle with computer literacy and a low command of the English language that causes language barrier and interpretation issues but those coaches are more than capable of coaching very well.

With a well thought out structure, UFCA would have a technical director that understands the needs of those coaches.

The technical director can draft a syllabus that enables coaches to be trained on how to be computer literate then organize internal coaching courses in a language they understand so that by the time they attend the mandatory English version of the course, it’s a matter of understanding the interpretations.

That’s one of the many problems faced by coaches in Ugandan football, finding solutions to solving problems by coaches would be the kind of value addition any coach needs hence enabling UFCA to attract members.

Over to you at UFCA.

Disclaimer: The writer has nothing against being a UFCA member.

Sacrifice football players.

There’s a saying in football that all decisions made have to be central to the players. Football players are very important stakeholders in football.

Before I get misunderstood, that doesn’t mean other stakeholders like; referees, administrators, media, fans, and coaches don’t have an important role to play in football. They are very important, without them, the game can’t go on.

For any football decision to be made, the priority should be footballers then other football stakeholders will benefit from that decision.

Example; When FIFA introduces a water break during matches, players are the priority in that decision but other stakeholders benefit.

Match officials will get an opportunity to cool off, take water and perhaps have a simple chat about the progress of the game.

Football players being key and central in all decisions seems to be the way things should be done but not in Uganda.

HOW ARE FOOTBALL PLAYERS SACRIFICED IN UGANDAN FOOTBALL?

The majority of footballers in Ugandan football have their health sacrificed due to limited resting arising from the number of matches they get involved in.

Uganda Premier League (UPL), Uganda Cup, Super 8, ODILO and The Drum football tournament are some of the tournaments.

At the end of the 2018-19 season, there was a high number of players that were involved in league/cup matches on a Friday then played in The Drum football tournament matches on a Sunday.

That means a player was involved in two matches in a space of three days but when you work out the number of hours, playing at 4 pm on Friday then 4 pm on Sunday means they played two matches in a space of 48 hours.

When other factors like weather conditions, poor playing facilities, poor nutrition, the distance between match venues, the poor physical condition of players, etc. all come in then it’s a recipe for player burn out or poor health conditions after retirement.

Just when you thought it couldn’t get worse. ODILO national championships, a U-14 football tournament organized by FUFA will have teams playing three matches in a space of 4 days.

How many Ugandan footballers have rested since the 2018-19 season ended? Many players were involved in The Drum football tournament, COSAFA, CECAFA, CHAN qualifiers and then Super 8 in the offseason.

With CAF Champions’ league and UPL all coming up, fingers crossed they won’t be limping by January 2020 if Uganda Cranes qualifies for CHAN 2020.

Football players indeed need to get involved in many tournaments and matches to gain experience but for that to happen, other conditions like the quality of playing infrastructure, quality nutrition, quality of travel between matches, good fitness levels, etc. have to be met.

This being Uganda we went for the copy and paste version of exposing footballers to many matches in a short time without considering other factors.

Does that explain why 95% of footballers that play within Uganda lack consistency?

The majority of footballers in Ugandan football have their income sacrificed because clubs don’t honor contracts.

Most players go unpaid for an entire second round of the league then end up being released at the end of the season.

This’ usually done by clubs that are struggling to perform on the pitch because they know players will leave after not being paid then save money to contract new players.

WHAT CAN BE DONE TO IMPROVE?

Federation of Uganda Football Associations (FUFA) and UPL as the organizers of major tournaments in Uganda football need to identify individuals with technical knowledge of football then have them trained on how to handle fixtures and start involving them in decisions to do with fixtures.

It’s true that other factors like pitch availability affect fixtures but having an input of someone with technical knowledge of football would greatly help to avoid unhealthy fixture congestion and overlapping football seasons.

Uganda Football Players’ Association needs to adopt a corporate governance module to enable it to attract and have all football players as members.

This will help them achieve self-sustainability to open up funding for educating players. All footballers in Uganda may be ignorant about the dangers of playing many matches in unfavorable recovery conditions.

Ironically, FUFA preaches and practices corporate governance but the majority of its members are struggling to implement it. FUFA should empower members by conducting training sessions to improve governance.

FUFA’s club licensing regulations should be enforced. Under financial criteria, clubs are supposed to have cleared all debts to zero balance.

With better supervision, it’s possible to identify clubs that haven’t paid players and other service providers.

FUFA can amend competition regulations to include that clubs defaulting on payments be deducted points and it extreme cases they can be relegated or denied a license to compete in some tournaments.

Football organizers in Uganda need to start considering players as key stakeholders in decisions. For that to happen, players will need to be educated. With knowledge comes power.

Disclaimers: The writer has nothing against any football tournament in Uganda.

Football coaching jobs in Uganda.

Hands up if you are tired and fed up with recycled football coaches using the same ideas at the top level in Ugandan football! That’s very many hands out there, one hand up is enough.

In September 2014, I attended a CAF C coaching class with 71 other aspiring coaches. In January 2017 we upgraded to CAF B, the number of students dropped to about 50.

As I prepare for CAF A that might be at the end of 2019, there’s a very high possibility we could be less than 30 students. With CAF PRO coaching course coming up in 2021, imagine how empty the class will be.

It’s possible that by nature, numbers reduce as you progress higher due to many reasons. In this case, it’s the lack of football coaching jobs in Uganda. Well, not jobs but the lack of football coaching opportunities.

Jobs are scarce everywhere, but not in Ugandan football because there are very many tournaments that offer football coaching opportunities.

Take a deep breath as you read through this list of tournaments; Uganda Premier League (UPL), Big League, The Drum football tournament, University Football League, Beach Soccer, Futsal League, Masaza Cup, Copa Coca-cola, Bika football tournament, Women’s Elite League and regional leagues.

Coach X is a head coach in different teams competing in almost every football tournament in Uganda including the corporate league. This means that coach X occupies positions that would have been held by almost 10 other coaches.

Coach X occupying all those positions, means that his idea of coaching football is used in different tournaments that limit Ugandan football from the opportunity to see fresh ideas of other football coaches.

Coach X is one of many coaches occupying more than one football coaching position which further reduces the number of opportunities available for upcoming coaches.

Whenever there’s a vacant coaching position in UPL, it’s very easy to guess which coach will take up that position. It’s so easy to an extent that media no longer need to attend a press conference, all they do is to guess which ends up being correct.

In the worst case, by the end of the 2018-19 UPL season, Onduparaka fc and Paidha Black Angels didn’t bother naming replacements after their coaches left because they were waiting for the recycled coaches to be available.

As 2019-20 pre-season gets underway, Mbarara City FC is still hunting for a coach but there’s almost no choice of a coach because all the recycled coaches have either been taken up or booked.

Maroons FC, Kyetume FC, and Wakiso Giants FC have all named new coaches that have been recycled from over the years.

Indeed, the tried and tested coaches will always get the best jobs but in Uganda’s case, only a selected few are tried and tested because they occupy almost every football coaching position.

IS IT POSSIBLE TO COACH MANY TEAMS?
In June 2019, I conducted coaching sessions for my football students. The process of planning and designing a 90-minute training session was very demanding, it required a whole month of planning yet there were only three training sessions per week in that month. The evaluation process was equally demanding though in a good way.

It’s almost impossible to excel as a professional if you can’t commit time and effort to one thing at a time. Any football coach that handles more than one team is the definition of amateur and mediocrity.

If Ugandan football needs to progress from amateur status to professional, then regulations on football coaches need to be revised.

WHAT SHOULD FUFA DO?
Federation of Uganda Football Association (FUFA) has done very well to make regulations that make it easy for qualified coaches to get jobs and practice what they have learned. UPL and Big League clubs are required to have coaches of certain qualifications.

FUFA should revise regulations to limit the number of teams and tournaments a coach can be allowed to gain employment. More regulations should be set in place to protect Women’s football and female coaches.

Revised regulations should include; A head coach in any team should not be allowed to hold another football coaching job, any coach working in the top two divisions should not be allowed to hold another coaching position, coaches should be limited to working with one team per season.

Coaches in developing football disciplines like Futsal and Beach soccer should not be allowed to hold more than two coaching positions.

Development tournaments like Masaza cup, Copa coca-cola, Bika football tournament, The Drum football tournament and University football league should only be handled by football coaches that have never been employed in the top two divisions.

The best way to enforce such regulations is to ensure that every football tournament registers the coaches handling teams competing in that tournament then submit to FUFA for supervision.

With those regulations in place, it will be possible to see more football coaching ideas that will eventually get to the top tier league. The more ideas available, the higher the chances of getting a better idea.

Ugandan football needs a high number of qualified coaches, with revised regulations to create jobs and opportunities, it’s very possible to greatly reduce the rate of football coaching student dropouts.

Disclaimer: The writer doesn’t have anything against Coach X.

Wasted time!

Next is a 2007 movie, Nicholas Cage acts as a magician that can see in the future. That ability greatly helps him to change things in the present however, at the end of the movie, he seems to have been killed in a nuclear bomb explosion only for him to wake up.

The explosion scene was him seeing in the future. I guess waking up meant that he was going to change the present to avoid the nuclear blast.

In July 2018, Uganda Premier League (UPL) signed a 10-year broadcasting contract worth 27 billion Uganda shillings with Star times TV.

The contract seemed to be of very little value but UPL couldn’t negotiate for more because they didn’t have a lot to offer in terms of value.

Its 1st July 2028, UPL needs to search for a new sponsor because Star times has decided not to renew their broadcasting and league naming rights contract after 10 years of slow growth.

In 2028, Football globally has made huge strides. Back in 2019, the competition for Ugandan football was foreign football on TV.

Now the competition is that English Premier League (EPL) matches can be hosted in African countries with better infrastructure like South Africa.

With advancements in technology, the world uses 5G technology, a fan can watch a match using a Virtual Reality (VR) headset and seem like they are in the stadium with access to every stadium camera angle.

There’s a world football league going on, who needs to watch UPL matches?

WHY IS UPL STUNTED?
A league can only be as good as the clubs in it.

UPL has so far failed to set high standards that can push clubs to become professional.

Football clubs are run in an amateur football set up, actually worse than amateur because some corporate league teams are administered way better than most clubs in UPL.

UPL can’t have the league kicking off in August because clubs aren’t ready for an August kick-off, some clubs have to make up their minds on where they will host league matches.

UPL fixtures can’t be released early because clubs can’t honor the deadlines set for supervision to be granted a license to play in the league.

UPL clubs don’t have an active website and social media handles to keep fans engaged during the season and off-season, less fan engagement means fewer numbers which doesn’t sound good for the broadcasting and naming rights sponsor.

The majority of UPL clubs don’t honor contracts but go unpunished by UPL and the federation.

Not honoring contracts reduces the number of quality human resource working with clubs.

Without a quality human resource, it’s impossible to improve any institution.

Almost all UPL clubs don’t have a strategic plan to cater to what has to be achieved in the future.

If any strategic plan exists, then it’s on paper without any action because the supervision is extremely weak.

UPL Clubs haven’t been creative enough to get match day venues that offer comfort to fans, the majority of fans decide to stay away because they’d rather sit at home to watch foreign football.

IF any UPL matches are on TV then quality is extremely poor because the venues used for matches can’t enable good broadcasting angles.

The other reason for poor quality matches is because the product is of very low standards.

UPL has Star times and Pilsner lager as sponsors/partners but struggles to show value for sponsorship because in Uganda we still treat sponsorship as donations.

Time is the greatest currency, with nine years left on the current broadcasting contract. The work done in that period will determine how valuable UPL’s broadcasting rights will be in 2028.

After 10 years of wasted time, I hope we wake up because it’s actually July 2019.

The rondo in Ugandan football.

Rondo is a small sided football game in which players form a circle, square or rectangle then move the ball to keep it away from opponents in the middle.

The most common rondo used in Uganda is 4 players against 2.

The rondo is so popular in Ugandan football to an extent that players use it to warm up, substitutes use it on matchday at half time, football coaches play it and on some training grounds, it has experts that govern how it’s played every evening especially during the offseason.

When you see football players in Uganda playing the rondo, they give you the impression of being very good players until they get on the field to play. Whatever they were doing in the tight space of a rondo disappears on a full-sized pitch. An observant person would wonder, what went wrong?

HOW IS THE RONDO ABUSED IN UGANDAN FOOTBALL?
At the start, players and coaches walk straight on the pitch to play the rondo as a way of warming up.

They’ve seen this with professional football clubs in Europe but in reality, those clubs have gyms at their training grounds where warming up and stretching are usually performed before the players walk out on the pitch. Here in Uganda, it’s rarely the case.

Getting straight into the rondo causes groin related injuries because the body works at a high intensity before being prepared.

Football is a directional sport, has goals or something players have to work hard to achieve.

Scoring goals and preventing your opponent from scoring are the main goals in the game of football. The rondo is a small-sided game so goals become something else.

In the most common version of the rondo in Uganda, the targets used are of the least importance in a football match. Four players keep the ball away from two players that need to gain possession of the ball.

When you read that statement again here’s what you will find as a very common trait in Ugandan football; Possession without a purpose, players get excited after making three consecutive passes, when players gain possession of the ball they struggle to transition (moving from defense to attack and the opposite) and support is misunderstood by running towards the player with the ball.

Football is a team sport where individuals work together to achieve a common goal.

Not in the most common version of the rondo in Uganda, players are expected to work as individuals.

A player loses possession as an individual then wins possession as an individual.

This forces players to avoid the responsibility of correcting a mistake made by a teammate.

HOW CAN THE RONDO BE USED EFFECTIVELY?
Most football coaches in Uganda need to greatly improve their ability to be observant.

This requires watching the actions of players with attention to details. For this to be done very well, coaches need to reduce the amount of time they spend being actively involved in practices organized by themselves especially the rondo.

The majority (99%) of footballers in Uganda don’t know how to apply the principles of play in football.

It’s not their fault but their responsibility to have the application of that knowledge.

A creative football coach would use a rondo to teach principles of play. Other football basics like roles in defense and attack can be coached using a rondo.

Rondos are a great way to teach football players how to understand the game by applying the demands of football. Players in defense can be taught how to position themselves and work together to force attackers into mistakes while attacking players can be taught how to position themselves in order to create space that enables the ball to move forward.

The rondo is viewed as a fun game to help players relax but if football coaches start viewing it differently, it’s the simplest format of teaching players the principles of defending and attacking in football which is the foundation of knowing and understanding the game of football.

Disclaimer: The writer has nothing against the use of rondos.