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The Federation of Uganda Football Associations (FUFA) has said continued peripheral resource allocation to the game by Ugandans remains one of its biggest challenges.
“Sports will always be the last page, low quality and quantity. For example 0.06% of the national budget was allocated to all sports inclusive of salaries of government staff in 2014/5 National Budget,” FUFA President Moses Magogo said in his end of year statement.
” The main Challenge has been our mindsets. The entire football family, the fans, public, the corporate world and the government has still not yet conceptualized the goldmine of a professional football industry considering the natural endowment that God has bestowed upon us as a nation,” he said, adding that, “This leads to peripheral resource allocation to football by us all.”
Magogo said that without enough resources – the time, the HR and the finances, there will definitely be no one minding the old Sports Law and lack of policies that could enforce development of sports, decaying and insufficient sports infrastructure, and struggling national teams representing Uganda.
“Also to note is that football does not exist in isolation. The challenges of society affect football too. The socio-economic challenges of corruption, drugs, economy, infrastructure, security, heath, etc will always affect the end product of football. Everything else as a challenge is purely operational and is simply a symptom of the above.”
Magogo, in his briefing to the press at FUFA House Wednesday, outlined several measures to turn Uganda’s football fortunes around, saying improved marketing and development of human resources will be key.
He said The Cranes historic qualification for the Nations Cup Finals, where they last participated in 1978, is an indication of changing fortunes.
“I must state that if 2015 was a golden year for Ugandan Football, 2016 has been diamond,” Magogo said.
Growing sponsorship, and here he hailed ECO Bank, and fans participation, where he hailed Onduparaka football club, were signs that the challenges the game faces can be turned around.
“If it were an aircraft, we have delivered Uganda to the runway ready to take off. The commercial viability of FUFA today as obtained from the sporting results, marketing approach, governance structures, strategic planning and togetherness can now generate the resources required to undertake long term development that will sustain Ugandan football at the highest,” Magogo said.
FULL SPEECH
Fufa President End of Year 2016 Speech by The Independent Magazine on Scribd
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