Author Archives: Ben Mwesigwa

You lack experience!

You lack experience is a very common phrase or response in Uganda. The same phrase is regularly used in Football.

It’s a bitter truth to accept when you are on the receiving end of that phrase. Most times it’s a genuine assessment but when it comes from someone responsible for helping you gain experience then it loses meaning.

As Uganda Cranes prepares for AFCON 2019. Allan Okello’s omission from the squad made headlines, and registered a high search count on google.

His omission from the squad was a debate topic on social media, most football shows on television and radio because this’ a player that played well in the 2018-19 season.

Allan Okello didn’t do himself any favors by having the distraction of trials.

I don’t know any football coach that would want to have a distracted player in camp. He was moved to the other Cranes squad preparing for COSAFA and missed that tournament because of his trials in Switzerland.

As I write this blog, Uganda Cranes coach Sebastian Desabre has named the final 23 players to represent Uganda at AFCON 2019.

The squad has three left backs; Joseph Ochaya, Godfrey Walusimbi, and Isaac Muleme.

I am not writing to suggest who should have been in the squad or not but I believe the squad selection has exposed our lack of planning player development in football. That lack of planning is one of the reasons most Ugandan football players lack experience.

Experience challenges in Ugandan Football.

Experience comes from doing. Unfortunately, in Ugandan football, we think experience comes from age. It’s possible to find a 30-year-old player that lacks experience of international football.

The majority of Ugandan footballers lack football related experience because they are not given an opportunity by the people responsible for their development.

The recently concluded UEFA Nations League (UNL) should have been a very good example of how long term planning in football is being implemented to help young players gain experience.

Portugal, Netherlands, England, and Switzerland wanted to win the tournament but used it as an opportunity to name squads that had a mix of youth and experience.

Joao Felix (aged 19), Declan Rice (aged 20), De Ligt (aged 19) and Manuel Akanji (aged 23) all represented their respective nations.

Giving young players an opportunity to gain experience comes at a cost in the short term but has long term benefits. How much experience of a semifinal will those young players have at the Euro 2020 and the 2022 FIFA world cup in Qatar?

Allan Okello, Mustafa Kizza, and Paul Willa are some of the U23 national team players that played well in the league. Going for COSAFA was a good step for them to gain experience of international football but should have continued to AFCON 2019.

They don’t have to play but be part of the squad to gain tournament experience in 2019.

What will happen at AFCON 2023 when they will be required to lead?

They will be older but will most likely lack tournament experience and the cycle will continue.

What happens when Uganda Cranes might be trailing 3-0 with 5 minutes left to play?

What happens when Uganda Cranes is leading 3-0 with three minutes left to play?

That would be an opportunity for those players to get on the pitch and gain practical experience of AFCON.

Reflection of Society

Football is a reflection of society but can also be used to change the society we live in.

It’s common to find a businessman/woman in Uganda operating a business for 10-20 years with teenage sons/daughters lacking experience of how the business operates because, in our mindset, we expect experience to be like an on/off switch.

We keep searching for experienced people in everything.

In 2016 I wrote a blog suggesting how FUFA should implement a flexible player licensing system to enable young players to gain experience of top-flight football.

FUFA acted on it and it’s now operating on paper. In the recently concluded 2018-19 Uganda Premier League (UPL) season, Uganda Revenue Authority Football Club (URA FC) went through an injury crisis but responded by naming only four out of a possible seven substitutes for most of their matches during that injury crisis yet they had a U-19 squad of 25 players available to fill in.

That’s a clear example of denying young players an opportunity to gain experience of top-flight football.

AFCON 2019 should have been a good opportunity for Allan Okello, Mustafa Kizza, and Paul Willa to gain experience from experienced players ahead of them.

Ugandan football needs to greatly improve on planning if we are to solve most football related problems. In this case, it’s a lack of experience in our players.

In the line of fire.

During the 2015-16 FUFA Juniors’ League (FJL), I was coaching Maroons Junior Team when we lost 8-0 (in the line of fire) both home and away to KCCA Junior Team.

To make matters worse, the KCCA Junior team was using the Maroons pitch for its home matches but losing those two matches was the least of my concerns.

In both matches, I used separate goalkeepers because I needed both goalkeepers to gain experience, they definitely got more experience than I had hoped for because on top of conceding eight goals, it came with an addition of being ridiculed by their own peers which is part of football learning.

That KCCA Junior team has since gone on to have players join the senior team, Paul Willa, Kizza Mustafa, Allan Okello, Peter Magambo, Herbert Achai, Ronald Kikonyogo e.t.c. As for the two Maroons JT goalkeepers, Solomon Okello and Brian Ozelle are currently (writing of this blog) in Jinja for the 2019 copa coca-cola tournament representing Amus College and Nakaseke International respectively.

Hold on to label them as failures because they are not even close to failing.

Conceding eight goals would be very hard to take especially in Uganda where we want to win junior tournaments at all costs, where we treat losing as the definition of failure but it shouldn’t be the case in underage football which should be used as a development platform for the players.

When I checked the statistics recorded after the match, Solomon Okello had made 21 saves. In the reverse fixture, Brian Ozelle made 17 saves which clearly indicates they were in the line of fire.

The opposition goalkeeper made one save in both matches. For young goalkeepers, having to deal with a ball from the opponent is one of the activities that accelerate their development. The more activities, the higher the chances of developing earlier.

In professional football, it’s very hard for young players to break through to the senior team especially the top teams in Europe.

This comes from top teams being under pressure to perform well instantly, they rely on experienced signings and in most cases, the best players stay longer. Do a quick survey on teams like FC Barcelona, Real Madrid, Juventus, Man City, Liverpool, Bayern Munich e.t.c.

When was the last time an academy graduate made it as a regular player? How often do academy graduates make it to play in the senior team of top teams?

HOW IS THE DEVELOPMENT OF YOUNG PLAYERS PROGRESSED?
Young players are usually sent out on loan to gain experience by getting first-team football. It usually starts by assessing the level at which the players can compete then send them out on loan however, the process to send them out on loan is not impulse.

Clubs break down how the player will develop. If it’s a defender, they will send them to a club where they expect the player to face the pressure of defending so that they can get involved in a lot of defensive work to gain experience.

The same thing will happen with a goalkeeper and other positions. They will also work out the ambitions of the club.

Do they need the player to gain experience in dealing with relegation?

Do they need a player to gain experience in dealing with promotion?

All this’ done to develop the player to prepare them for the parent club or to increase their value because not all young players will make it to play for senior team but they will bring in revenue for the club.

BACK TO UGANDA
In January 2019, I played in the Futsal Uganda Cup for Thunders FC. We had a 14-year-old Humphrey Oyirwoth as our goalkeeper.

After elimination, I started thinking of a club that could use him in the 2019-20 FJL to gain experience and develop into a better goalkeeper.

I thought of taking him to KCCA FC Junior team but while having a conversation with his older brother something crossed my mind, should Humphrey go to a team that completely dominates opponents?

Does a goalkeeper develop without being worked in a football match?

If he ever makes it past junior age bracket, will KCCA FC have a player development plan for him to go out on loan and acquire experience?

I didn’t think it would develop him.

I decided to look for a club that will be FJL underdogs because Humphrey needs to be placed in the line of fire. I need him playing against KCCA JT, Vipers JT, Onduparaka JT, and the other good teams.

The added advantage is that unlike the 2015-16 FJL season, these days FJL has three rounds which would mean Humphrey playing against KCCA JT three times. Wow!!!

The challenge I have with finding an FJL team for Humphrey is that I don’t know any team or coach in Uganda that would place developing a player ahead of matchday results in underage football.

I would have used him at Maroons JT but I was dismissed as Maroons JT coach after a 10-0 (you read that right ten-zero) loss to Onduparaka JT in February 2018.

I am still not bothered about that result but If you know any coach in Uganda that would place a player’s development ahead of a match day result in FJL, please let me know because I am bothered about Humphrey’s development.

Disclaimer: The writer has nothing against coaches or administrators in Ugandan football that place winning above anything else.

Foreign coaches in Ugandan football.

When the Uganda Cubs (U-17 men’s national team) qualified to play at the 2019 U17 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) by lifting the CECAFA U17 trophy in 2018, the team was coached by Peter Onen (a Ugandan).

Federation of Uganda Football Associations (FUFA) decided to hunt for a coach and settled for Fabian Kwesi from Ghana.

Fabian Kwesi’s appointment was welcomed by ‘senior’ Ugandan coaches going on social media to complain about his appointment, apparently, they deserved a chance to coach the national team.

FUFA in their defense said they headhunted for a coach with experience of qualifying a team to the FUFA U17 World cup. With the 2019 AFCON U17 tournament being used as the event for world cup qualifiers.

The task ahead was qualifying for semifinals then a slot would be guaranteed to play in Brazil. Story short, Uganda Cubs didn’t qualify under the guidance of Fabian Kwesi who also hired a fellow Ghanaian to be the fitness coach for the Cubs.

WHERE DO COACHES IN UGANDA GET IT WRONG?

Asking for a chance to coach the national team without showcasing what you can do is more like entitlement, I am Ugandan, I deserve the job doesn’t work in football.

The coaches complaining about deserving the job ahead of a foreigner have never had experience handling U17 players. There’s a huge difference between coaching young players in the top flight league and coaching U17 players but don’t tell that to a coach in Uganda, to them football coaching is general.

Ahead of the 2017-18 football season, which includes FUFA Juniors’ League (FJL) FIFA sent a youth football instructor to Uganda.

He conducted a Youth Member Associations coaching course to teach coaches how to handle young players. FUFA requested each UPL club to send two coaches for training, some clubs sent only one coach while others didn’t show up.

I would expect any coach interested in coaching youth players to show up but that’s the mentality of coaches in Uganda. Gaining knowledge or going through the process of unlearning to relearn new trends in football coaching is a problem for coaches in Uganda.

Ignoring that course had a lot to do with that but they expect to coach a U17 National team in 2019.

When Tanzania hosted the 2018 CECAFA U17 tournament, an interested coach should have been in Tanzania to observe what the Uganda cubs went through, they should have acquired footage (should be very easy these days) of all regional qualifiers then present to FUFA how they would pull off world cup qualification.

A busy coach would have hired an analyst to help them do opposition analysis but a coach in Uganda finds investing (paying for knowledge acquisition) in themselves as offensive.

The majority of football coaches in Uganda will walk into a training session without planning ahead.

They plan a training session as it goes on so they expect to plan U17 world cup qualification during qualifiers. Hint: U17 World cup qualification starts at working with U15 players two years prior to the qualification. Good luck expecting someone that can’t plan a day’s training session planning for two years.

Youth football has U-17, U-20 and in some rare cases U-23. It’s a specialized area of coaching in football.

A coach has to earn badges in normal football coaching then get specialized education in youth football to practice as a youth coach.

It’s only in Uganda where we think that being a senior coach automatically guarantees you the ability to coach youth players. Sorry!!!!!!

YOUTH FOOTBALL VS SENIOR FOOTBALL.

Youth football requires working and following a set syllabus for coaching the players to learn while senior football has a lot to do with solving problems in a previous match.

Example: If a U17 team is being coached how to break down a compact defense by effective use of wing play, this lesson might last three months. All matches that happen during that period will have the coach place emphasis on whether players are able to transfer what is being taught into the matches played.

Success will be rated in that particular area. Should the team play a match and have problems with attacking and defending set-pieces then no need to panic because the time for that will show up. In Senior football, every problem is documented and broken down as team problems, group/unit/line problems, and individual problems.

Corrections are usually done in the days after the match. In most cases, clubs will need to sign players because they need to succeed instantly (the pressure too)

Youth football requires using all players by giving all players an equal amount of playing time because it’s the only way they can all be assessed fairly because playing a match is best and perhaps the only way to gain experience.

During the league (FJL) if a club has registered three goalkeepers then a schedule has to be drawn on how all the three goalkeepers will be used during the season.

Senior football requires having the best players on the pitch as much as possible although in the modern era, teams using fringe players for cup matches to keep them active throughout the season.

If coaches in Uganda want to coach the national team(s) they need to invest in acquiring knowledge then build competent coaching teams to work better. For now, Fabian Kwesi is more than welcome.

Disclaimer: The writer is a football coach in Uganda and doesn’t have anything against ‘senior’ coaches.

Defending is football too.

In this information age, a football player who wants to improve gets on YouTube and watches clips showing what she/he can practice. It’s usually fancy tricks with the ball.

The podcast about Defending is football too.

Sometimes, the players will capture a video of themselves practicing to show off what they can do with the ball but that’s not competitive football, perhaps freestyle football.

Football has two main principles; defending and attacking.

These principles show that; if a player/team has possession of the ball then they are attacking, if the player/team doesn’t have the ball then they are defending.

That statement shows that if you don’t have the ball then you defend to avoid conceding a goal.

It also shows that if you defend well then you can get the ball and attack.

People will tell you how they played or watched a football match but apparently, the team that had the most possession is the one that played but defending is football too. The team without or less possession is playing too.

The recently concluded 2018-19 English Premier League (EPL) season showed that defenders or defending can be recognized.

A good defending performance can be as good as an attacking performance.

Virgil Van Dijk was named Player’s Player of the season after fellow players voted him.

He’s not the first defender to win that award but it’s good to see a shift in mindset to show that defending is football too.

Manchester City won the league title with a consistent 9/10 performance from Benardo Silva.

The attacking midfielder from Portugal is known for dribbling but had one of the most successful tackles and ball recoveries throughout the season.

He also recorded the longest distance covered, a staggering 13.9 km in a match against Liverpool.

A clear indication that his defensive abilities are very good something that helped him compete for a position ahead of more established players in the Man City squad.

BACK TO UGANDA
It’s good to see that in the recently concluded 2018-19 Uganda Premier League (UPL), goalkeepers and defenders were able to take home the man of the match award even better, Mike Mutebi the head coach of UPL champions KCCA FC says that Timothy Awany was the club’s best player during the 2018-19 season.

Football coaches in Uganda have a habit of separating football. They restrict defensive players to practice only defensive work, attacking players to practice only attacking work. This habit has reached, underage football, players as young as 10 years old have already been classified as either defenders or attackers.

Coaches have made players believe that as a defender you shouldn’t have any business using the ball, attacking players have been made to believe they have no business working to defend.

With this upbringing, Uganda is now filled with the majority of players not having the ability to function on the field when the demand is to defend and attack. Most of the players can only do one football function.

Perhaps it also explains why most goalkeepers are still struggling with being comfortable with the ball at their feet.

Worryingly though it explains why in Ugandan football when a team is defending, the pitch will be usually split into one part of the team defending while the other part of the team waits for the ball (seems like we are stuck in the past).

Players who are very good at attacking the aerial ball with the head will rarely fall back to defend set-pieces.

Defenders who are good at defending aerial balls with the head will rarely be a threat when attacking set-pieces.

MODERN FOOTBALL TRENDS
The current trend in football is that every player on the pitch should be useful when their team is either attacking or defending.

Wide defenders have many assists after arriving in the attacking third of the pitch while many wide attackers will be in the defensive third when out of possession.

Lionel Messi is a wonderful tackler, Christiano Ronaldo has many defensive headed clearances from set-pieces and of course, Vincent Kompany came up with a wonderful goal, shooting from a distance to keep Man City in control of the EPL title hunt.

The best two goals at the 2018 FIFA World Cup came from two central defenders (Pavard and Nacho) playing as wide defenders.

This ability in those players shows they were taught all football skills at a young age something that needs to be done by football coaches in Uganda or else the margin to professional football will keep getting bigger.

For all young players who intend to impress as footballers, defending is football too.

Learning how to do both defending and attacking is one of the things football scouts observe in a player.

Disclaimer: The writer has nothing against freestyle football.

Institutional football clubs need sight of professional football

In February 2019, an image of the 1995 Uganda league table was shared on social media. In this image, the league had 15 teams, 11 of the 15 clubs were institutional teams.

The Podcast
An image of the 1995 top flight league table in Uganda showing the number of institutional owned clubs.
An image of the 1995 top flight league table in Uganda showing the number of institutional owned clubs.

Back then, institutions injected funds into football because they had the capacity to pay salaries and handle other costs that come with playing the league.

These institutions must have relied on tax payer’s money, something you can’t rely on upon forever to fund football.

Fast forward to 2019, only KCCA FC among the 11 institutional clubs that played in the 1995 league is still active.

Considering that Uganda’s budget was generally funded by donors and some taxes (I stand to be corrected) they were sane enough to ensure that money allocated from the budget doesn’t end up as recurring expenses in football.

The other 10 clubs have since closed shop because they didn’t have funds to operate a football club in the league.

The 2018-19 UPL season had seven institutional clubs. Uganda Revenue Authority (URA), Police, Maroons, Ndejje University, Kirinya Jinja SS, Bidco (BUL) and Kampala City Council Authority (KCCA) in addition to those clubs in the top flight, Plascon, Army (UPDF) and Water FC are other institution teams in the second-tier league.

It’s shocking that 10 institutions exited football years ago but a separate group of institutional clubs are still active in football. Have they researched why the other institutions exited?

Institutions had the funds to operate football clubs because government expenditure wasn’t monitored and football was amateur. Let me stick to the amateur football explanation for the rest of the article.

Amateur football doesn’t care how much revenue you make, all you need is to show up and play. The organization is basic too, all you need is a committee of volunteers earning allowances to do whatever has to be done.

WHAT HAS CHANGED?

Football is now professional, not fully in Uganda but at least it’s starting to paint the picture of being professional.

Professionalism comes with its demands. You have to EMPLOY the RIGHT people; you need a corporate governance module to ensure self-sustainability and the other basics that come with being professional.

In football, the challenges of being professional are much more demanding because a club is expected to spend according to how much money it makes from football-related activities.

KCCA FC has done very well to start its journey to self-sustainability, they have employed the right people and managed to attract sponsorship that funds almost 60% of the club’s budget.

WHAT ABOUT THE OTHER INSTITUTIONAL CLUBS?

As football in Uganda continues on the journey to professionalism, the other institutional clubs will drop out of football because they have struggled to do the basics of football management.

Starting with employing the right people that work full time to make the club professional.

On matchday 30 of the 2018-19 Uganda Premier League (UPL) season, KCCA FC hosted Maroons FC on coronation day (trophy ceremony), KCCA FC had to give Maroons FC playing shorts to use (let that sink in).

Maroons will give you reasons for borrowing a playing kit from KCCA FC but no sane mind would entertain that excuse.

There are plenty of examples in which institution clubs have struggled to show the kind of organization expected out of them. When Police FC hosted Paidha Black Angels (PBA) at Lugogo, the match was stopped at a certain point after a PBA fan threw objects at the assistant referee, officially the stop was recorded as a water break while the offender was dealt with swiftly. Is that security lacking at a Police match or a case of the offender being daring?

URA FC is working on employees wearing jerseys as a sign to support the club but by the time a person joins URA as an employee at an average age of 25, good luck turning them into supporters.

Police FC had merchandise to sell for the 2018-19 UPL season, on inquiry, a customer needed to move to Naguru to buy a Police FC branded cup/flask.

Was it possible to have those cups available in every police post to make it easier for buyers? I am not a marketing expert but neither am I moving to Naguru for a flask I can easily get next door.

In the 2017-18 UPL season, Stanbic Bank donated (lack of a better word) money to support Maroons then for the 2018-19 season, Centenary bank donated money to support Police FC.

Those two banks don’t appear on playing kits. Have those two clubs attempted to find out why a corporate company is willing to give them money but not appear on their jerseys?

SOLUTIONS FOR INSTITUTIONAL CLUBS

KCCA FC is able to attract sponsorship revenue because they have a combination of pedigree, fan base and organized at the moment. Apart from the name, they have tried to be independent of their mother body.

URA, Police, Ndejje University, Kirinya Jinja SS and the rest can attract sponsorship revenue by changing football team names.

Let’s use an example of URA FC since they already have land in Naggalama (I had better be right on that).

If URA FC renamed to Mapenzi FC, URA would be the owners of Mapenzi FC operating as an independent company, the club would initially benefit from being funded by owners to set up a stadium in Naggalama.

The residents would identify with the club and start supporting it, more supporters would increase revenue from matchday, commercial activities like selling club merchandise and TV rights which would attract sponsors.

How long would it take for Mapenzi FC to break even?

Why shouldn’t URA FC use Naggalama FC as a name? Using Naggalama FC would have restricted URA to one area yet URA has a nationwide presence.

When URA stops funding Mapenzi FC, the funds can be used to set up grassroots structures across the country.

Imagine having a Mapenzi FC grassroots structure in every region of Uganda. Mapenzi would have achieved in having first sight on talent that can go on to play for the club and generate money when transferred secondly, Mapenzi FC would have extended its footprint across the country to attract supporters (more revenue) when they are still young (then it will be possible to make an employee proudly wear a Mapenzi FC jersey).

DO INSTITUTIONAL CLUBS HAVE ROLE MODELS?

My example of what URA FC and other institutional clubs need to do by changing names might be coming from an amateur that lacks an informed opinion.

I suggest they benchmark CSKA Moscow in Russia because it’s owned by the army.

I am sure Police, UPDF, URA, Maroons and the rest can easily afford a trip to Moscow.

Disclaimer: The writer doesn’t have anything against institutional football clubs, all examples were used in good faith.