Paul Put is clear about how he intends to play, but will the govt come through?

The outstanding clarity of Paul Put's thought and style has placed him in the good graces of football purists in Uganda.

The Belgian tactician's legend grew that bit more when Uganda played out from the back en route to scoring the opening goal in a 2-1 win away to South Sudan. 

This was a big deal, not least, for a team that usually owes any strong showing more to the stumbles of others than its audacity.

But as we continue to revel in a front-foot playing display that left the Cranes on the cusp of qualifying for the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) finals, one question recurs with awful inevitability: is the construction of an identity complete? There are no easy answers. Sadly.

It would be prudent not to get ahead of ourselves, for two reasons. For starters, it remains to be seen whether the football philosophy that Put espouses will cascade to our major football leagues—the Premier League and Big League.

Most of the coaches that run the rule over local football clubs are not particularly keen on playing on the front foot. In fact, the vast bulk of coaches that figure in the top two tiers of club football have retained their powers almost in perpetuity by putting their stock in functional football.

As such, the omens do not look good. A classic case of arrested development beckons if it indeed proves hard to reconcile Put's desire to play on the front foot with the pragmatism that is rife at both the higher and lower reaches of Ugandan club football.

An age-old dictum reminds us that old habits die hard. So, a torturously slow wait is to be expected before the merits of playing on the front foot dawn on our coaches. 

For now, it appears, they will continue to pursue a pragmatic brand of football with a theological sense of conviction.

This neatly takes us to the second reason why we should not get ahead of ourselves.

A number of coaches plying their trade in Uganda say that the aforementioned theological sense of conviction is informed by the fact that decent playing surfaces in the country are few and far between. 

Putting together more than four passes on some of the surfaces is an exercise in futility. This tends to give route one football something of a seductive authenticity.

The government therefore has to be intentional in putting up world class facilities if we intend to treat football as an exercise in high aesthetics. And we are not talking about synthetic pitches that are widely believed to have kept exciting players like Julius Poloto and Jackson Nunda on the dreaded treatment table.

Ugandan football yearns for more natural pitches à la the one in Namboole. If we had four more similar pitches and a great deal of league matches were played on them, our football identity would well be set in stone. Local coaches would have no excuses for not putting much stock in playing an attractive brand of football.

Unfortunately, the absence of decent playing surfaces continues to render much more difficult the prospect of establishing Uganda as a country that plays on the front foot. Just imagine for a moment the net effect of having a stadium akin to the one at Namboole in all four corners of the country!  

Is this too much to ask of our state actors? Definitely not. Yet its bet is a generalised feeling of better luck next year. Our state actors want to always have their cake and eat it too. 
 
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