Cranes’ new head coach will have to design a well-laid out strategy that will enable the national team negotiate six gruelling 2015 Nations Cup qualifiers in the space of just three months next year.
Uganda Cranes
According to the Confederation of African Football (CAF), the qualifiers for the next tournament will be played between September and November in 2014 because of the congested football calendar throughout the year.
Apart from the 2015 African Nations Cup draw in January, the Africa Nations Championship (CHAN) will be played in South Africa later in the month into February.
The 2014 World Cup in Brazil will then follow in the month of June.
What this means, is CAF had to identify a window after the World Cup in which to squeeze the 144 qualifying fixtures, involving a total of 48 teams in 12 groups of four.
The schedule has been designed to fit in with FIFA’s international match calendar, where clubs will be obliged to release players on the dates set aside by the world governing body.
All weekend games will be followed by midweek fixtures on the dates of 1-9 September, 6-14 October and 10-18 November.
FUFA plan to announce Cranes’ new coach on Wednesday next week and will assemble a squad for both the 2014 World Cup and CHAN qualifiers due next month.
But among the several assignments for the new man in charge of Cranes will be to identify a group of experienced and youthful players who will be mentally and physically strong to traverse various parts of the continent during the 2015 qualifiers.
The 12 Group winners and the best three runners up will qualify for the tournament that will be hosted by Morocco between January and February 2015.
During CAF’s seeding exercise for the 2015 Nations Cup draw early this year, Uganda was placed in Pot Two, alongside Egypt, Libya, Algeria, Senegal, Cameroon, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Gabon, Uganda, Congo and CAR ahead of the draw next year.
It means the only North African opponent Cranes could draw is Tunisia, who are placed in Pot One alongside 2013 Nations Cup champions Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, Togo, Mali, South Africa, Cape Verde, DR Congo, Zambia, Tunisia, and Ghana from Pot One.
Uganda’s second group opponents will be drawn from Pot Three that includes Ethiopia, Benin Republic, Angola, Niger, Zimbabwe, Equatorial, Mozambique, Malawi, Burundi, Liberia, Sudan. The third opponents will then be known after the preliminary round.
By Fred Kaweesi, The New Vision
