Tag Archives: Ugandan Football

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.

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.