Local football governing body, Federation of Uganda Football Associations (FUFA) has revealed intentions to promote beach soccer in the various regions of the country (Northern, Eastern, Buganda, Kitara, Kampala, Western, Northern and North Eastern).
FUFA President Hon. Eng. Moses Magogo made this revelation 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 (UBSA) 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,” Magogo told FUFA website.
“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,’ Magogo added.
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.
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 said.
