The Cranes did not win a single game at the competition despite preparations that included participation in a mini-tournament
Federation of Uganda Football Associations (Fufa) president Moses Magogo has explained why he thinks the country performed poorly at the African Nations Championship in Cameroon.
The winless Cranes were eliminated after a 5-2 loss against the defending champions Morocco after they had drawn Rwanda 0-0 and went down 2-1 to Togo.
“We are ranked 16th in Africa, but you cannot reach the top without infrastructures. Uganda have no football pitch approved by Caf but we want to go and compete,” Magogo said as was quoted by Sports Nation.
“We need to do a lot with our home Premier League, set up infrastructures, make reforms in the league, commercially and technically."
Apart from poor infrastructure, Magogo blamed the low budget allocated to the football fraternity by the government for their disappointing performances.
“Parliament has to allocate adequate funds to set up infrastructures [stadiums] and that is my role together with my fellow MPs to bring this on the table,” he added.
“The 10 billion allocated to football is still little. We need more funding from the government. We need a hand from the government.”
The Fufa chief is among the newly-elected Members of Parliament after he clinched the Budiope East seat. He has now outlined what role he will play in the house as he tries to find solutions to football problems.
“I am happy to be in parliament now. Politics is about serving people. Sports has given us a platform that has enabled us to join politics,” Magogo concluded.
“We have worked on football problems, but we still have a long way to go. Football has got a lot of challenges, let’s try to correct the mistakes, rather than blaming anyone for the mistakes.
“I am going to bring football ideas in parliament. We have shown that we have the potential in sports. In the last Parliament, Sports has not been a priority, we as Fufa forced parliament to bring sports on the floor and that is why I am nowhere.
“I am not going to keep quiet while in parliament. We need to solve today’s sports problems and the time is now.”
Uganda – after a fifth attempt to unsuccessfully go past the Chan group stage – have now turned their focus on the upcoming U20 African Cup of Nations in Mauritania.