By Spy Uganda
Federation of Uganda Football Associations (FUFA) has committed self towards promotion of beach soccer in the various regions of the country (Northern, Eastern, Buganda, Kitara, Kampala, Western, Northern and North Eastern).
This was revealed by the FUFA President Hon. Eng. Moses Magogo as he hosted the Uganda national beach soccer team, Sand Cranes to a welcome luncheon held at Jevine Hotel, Rubaga in Kampala on Monday, 31st May 2021.
The Sand Cranes finished fourth at the AFCON 2021 beach soccer finals hosted by Senegal on their debut performance.
The luncheon was also attended by the first vice president of FUFA, Justus Mugisha; Executive Committee committee Hamid Juma (also the leader of delegation for the team in Senegal), Uganda Beach Soccer Association chairman Deo Mutabazi and delegate Anthony Tumwesigye, national teams coordinator Patrick Ntege Kaweesa, Hamzah Junju (Futsal Association Uganda chairman), among others.
‘‘I welcome back the Uganda Sand Cranes from AFCON from the historic performance. You are historic players. We came very close to qualifying for the FIFA World Cup. We have got extra hunger to perform better.
As FUFA, we have a lot of interest in beach soccer. We shall continue giving our best to support the game across the different regions of the country. We are working hard to construct a standard beach soccer facility.
We shall continue providing logistics for the Uganda Sand Cranes, one of the nine national teams. In last 8 years, we have had our teams play on the continental level 10 times (CHAN and AFCON tournaments). Proper strategy for each member in terms of competitions, training of coaches and other working methodologies,’’ Eng. Magogo stated.
Kibirige applauded the Federation for the efforts of facilitating the team and its promotion since the camping days in Uganda.
‘‘I am happy for the results we managed to get. Special thanks to FUFA for everything did to the team especially the facilitation. I thank the players for the fight. We call upon continued support from FUFA,’’ Kibirige noted.
Hamid Juma, leader of delegation was full of praise for the players for their endeavors.
‘‘We fought gallantly and earned good results. Very religious and hard working players. This was their first time and have gone to history. If we do things properly, we shall achieve a lot in Beach Soccer,’’ Hamid disclosed.
Each of the 24 members on the team will get at least Shs. 7,700,000 as per the FUFA payment scheme of players on the national team.
‘’We gained a lot from the AFCON beach soccer tournament played in Senegal. As the head coach, we shall revise each and every game we play going forward for better planning in future,’’ head coach Salim Muwonge said.
The UBSA chairman Mutabazi was full of praise for the federation for the funding, clubs, players and the media.
Mutabazi revealed that they are using the AFCON experience to design a technical strategy for the development of the game, to assist clubs on how best to approach the game.
‘‘The AFCON experience was a real blessing to us. We learnt first hand how to hand different situations. Technically, we are planning a retreat and shall design a technical strategy,’’ Mutabazi revealed.
