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Uganda's 2025 Afcon qualifying campaign will be anyone's call
ROBERT MADOI
What you need to know:
As for South Sudan, who can forget the Tito Okello winner in Nairobi, Kenya, that put paid hopes of qualifying for the 2021 Afcon finals!
Paul Put might currently exude a sense of calm and the air of someone who knows his job, but it is safe to say the tide will turn at the backend of November if the Cranes fail to make the cut for the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations finals.
In the event that such an outcome pans out, it will not only be Put to find himself in an untenable position.
An old and festering wound that has occupied the small matter of two qualifying campaigns will call into question the synoptic vision that Moses Magogo, never wanting in confidence or cockiness, was keen to claim after Uganda returned to the big time in 2017.
Such, however, is the sheer volume of sycophancy that has filtered into the fabric of Ugandan football that there can be no assurances of Fufa delegates having little incentive to throw in their lot with Magogo.
The verdict, though, in the court of public opinion will be as clear an answer as can be have hoped for—that Magogo is well past his sell-by date.
The absence of Uganda at another Afcon finals will doubtless produce a great vacancy that will ensure that Fufa's so-called “historical president” and Cranes fans do not get along tolerably.
Magogo, whose violent temperament instantly asserts itself at the slightest difference of opinion, wants to remain in the saddle—critics claim—when Uganda, alongside neighbours Tanzania and Kenya, host the 2027 Afcon finals.
He believes superintending over such a feat will make his legend grow that bit more. Perhaps to the extent of being the ssalongo version of a “historical president.”
So, with the man himself violently opposed to the idea of handing over the Fufa presidency even when the chips are down, we look set to be compelled to endure such unmerited and humiliating torture. Both in sickness and health.
The reason is twofold. Firstly, as already articulated, the idea of sacrifice never weighs heavily on Magogo’s mind. Secondly, our 2025 Afcon qualifying group that has South Africa, Congo Brazzaville, and South Sudan looks deceptively easy.
Indeed, it seems wholly possible, even inevitable, that it will be easy pickings for Uganda. But so have the past Afcon qualifying groups. The one for the 2021 finals saw us rub shoulders with Burkina Faso, Malawi, and South Sudan. Hardly world beaters.
We, however, huffed and puffed our way to a paltry eight points behind, wait for it, three goals scored. Ditto the 2023 Afcon qualifiers in which matches against Algeria, Tanzania, and Niger produced a pitiful seven points as well as a goal difference in the negatives.
It is against that backdrop that some doubting Thomases find themselves impassive and resigned to their fate ahead of the start of the 2025 Afcon qualifiers.
That, by the way, will be in September. With half a dozen qualifiers shoehorned into a 10-week period, it will be fascinating to see if the Cranes can muster the required consistency and resilience to arrive at the homestretch full of vigour and vitality.
It is easier said than done, especially since Put does not have that many experienced players at his disposal.
The Cranes will start their campaign with inarguably the toughest fixture—a trip away to South Africa's Bafana Bafana. The last time the two sides met in a competitive fixture was during the qualifying campaign for the 2006 Fifa World Cup.
There were razor-thin margins as Bafana Bafana used a Benni McCarthy penalty to edge past the Cranes 1-0 at Namboole on October 10, 2004.
The reverse fixture in South Africa was just as watertight, with the hosts prevailing 2-1 on March 25, 2005, after David Obua had restored parity for the Cranes. And celebrated rather maniacally.
Previous matches against Congo Brazzaville and South Sudan are also equally replete with absurdities and brilliances. Geoffrey Massa's pile-driver that shredded the onion bag as Bobby Williamson's Cranes thrashed the Congolese 4-0 at Namboole quickly springs to mind.
Ditto Halid Lwaliwa's last-gasp headed winner against South Sudan in Kitende. The absurdities? Uganda's 4-0 win avenged a 4-1 defeat on the road in which the Cranes' soft underbelly was ruthlessly exposed.
As for South Sudan, who can forget the Tito Okello winner in Nairobi, Kenya, that put paid hopes of qualifying for the 2021 Afcon finals!
That 1-0 loss, as well as putting a cat amongst the pigeons, gave way to the reality of the Cranes being anything but a finished article.
All of which means the qualifying campaign for the 2025 Afcon finals cannot be treated as a foregone conclusion. Anything can happen. And will happen.
