Uganda is among six African countries that will return to the now annual Fifa U-17 World Cup in Qatar that will played from November 19 to December 13.
Uganda which qualified for their first ever U-17 World Cup at last year’s edition joins Egypt, Mali, Ivory Coast, Senegal, and Morocco in defending their slots at the international showpiece. After finishing third in an U-17 Africa Cup of Nations group topped by Ivory Coast and Cameroon, and also included DRC, Uganda had to come from down twice to draw 2-2 with Ghana in regulation time of their World Cup qualification playoff match in Morocco. The Cubs then beat Ghana 8-7 on penalties to advance to Qatar 2026.
Fufa leaders used a dinner held on Tuesday at Sheraton Kampala Hotel to celebrate the players, the achievement, and as a chance to take stock of their efforts in youth football.
“Five years ago the president (Moses Magogo) told us that football development does not need to make noise in the papers. What makes noise is what you do on pitch,” Ronnie Kalema the Fufa executive secretary in charge of football development, said.
“On October 17, 2023, Fufa launched the Technical Master Plan and I want to thank the CEO (chief executive officer of Fufa) Edgar Watson for finding us a football development director, Bashir Mutyaba, that is hands on in implementation. And I also want to to thank the Uganda Youth Football Association (UYFA) for providing space for these young players to get an opportunity to play football and also USSSA (Uganda Secondary School Sports Association), which is playing a big part in developing the game.
“This success is not just a qualification but a reward of the belief, hardwork, and zeal that these young boys showed. It is important to note that the development pathway is not just for the boys but the girls too and we hope they also qualify soon.
“In this same hotel last year, we celebrated our maiden qualification to the World Cup. Who knows, maybe this might become the norm in our country,” Kalema added.
Dreams come alive
The function was attended by key enablers like the Commissioner of Physical Education and Sports in the Ministry of Education and Sports Rev. Canon Duncans Mugumya, National Council of Sports (NCS) assistant general secretary (technical) Milton Chebet, headteachers of Kyaddondo SS, St. Mary’s School Kitende, Kibuli SS, Amus College, and Bukedea Comprehensive, academy representatives from Ebenezer, KCCA, Prosper, Edgars, and Rays of Grace, plus some parents of the players.
“From last year’s U-17 team, we have four or five players that have moved to Europe. We will probably have more now because scouts are starting to look at us. Remember this is an annual tournament so, academies should double their efforts now and have players on the national team,” Roberts Kiwanuka, also director Rays of Grace academy, said.
Maybe Ugandan players can dream a little more now. Emmanuel and Shamim Mubiru, the parents of Trevor Mubiru, who scored the decisive kick in the shootouts against Ghana spoke of the anxiety in the moment and the their sons’ dreams.
“My stomach started hurting as soon as he walked up. But it had already showed signs when he was kicked a few times in the match,” his mother said while the father – a comedian and radio presenter – said “I tried playing football at Kajjansi Progressive between 1992 and 1997 but those were tough times where we had no shoes and opportunities. I am glad Trevor is now fulfilling my dreams.”
These dreams, captain Owen Mukisa said have seen them endure “sleepless nights, hard training, and criticism from our own fans. But we never gave up.”
“It is a great honour that we are and we want to thak for Fufa for giving us this opportunity. To achieve this was not easy but we promise to work even harder to make our country proud at the World Cup,” Mukisa added.
Pushing for dominance
According to Mugumya and USSSA president Justus Mugisha, Uganda will soon do even better at the World Cup. Last year in Qatar, Uganda beat France and drew with Chile after losing to Canada to make the knockout stages as one of best third-placed teams. Uganda went on to beat Senegal in the Round of 32 before losing to Burkina Faso in the Round of 16.
“This (return to the World Cup) fills me with pride because it shows we are doing this the right way,” Mugisha, who doubles as Fufa’s vice president, said.
“When you win once, it can be by chance. But when you qualify twice, one year after another, it shows there is a lot of work done. As players you have put in a lot but you have been pushed by your academies, primary and secondary schools which pay fees for you, and then programmes of Fufa.
“I have a lot of confidence that Uganda is going to dominate youth football very soon. The same schools that have players have dominated international schools’ football.
“This year, our Caf U-15 team was second in Africa. Two years ago, we went to China for ISF Schools Football World Cup where Amus were number two and Bukedea were third in boys’ football. Previously we were in Morocco (Caf U-15) were St. Noa Girls were second,” Mugisha added before he was complemented by Mugumya who recognized that at the 2024 ISF World Cup in China Amus and Bukedea beat schools from Germany, Nigeria, and Brazil among others thereby setting a right basis for better hope.
“Now that we will have a World Cup for U-15s soon, we have to go deeper and put in the work when these kids are Under 13. We need partnerships with primary schools,” Mugisha added.
Vision getting clearer
Fufa have put in work at the lower grassroots and just probably need to re-engineer the focus.
“Our vision has always been to be the number one football federation in Africa and to do that you must be chilling with the big boys. You only need to read the list of those that have qualified for the World Cup back-to-back to that it is possible for us to chill with them,” Magogo said before delving into their works.
“This has not come accidently but through deliberate plans by the federation. In 2015, we started the Fufa Juniors League. Before that, we did not have any organized competition for players other than the Premier League.
“In 2018, we realized we need to go lower and introduced Odilo which is the Primary School version by Fufa. Now today we have many competitions but they are just to cast a net so we can be able to tap as much talent as we can.
“We started the Fufa TV Cup to make sure the traditional schools are also involved in football. Of course when we start things they are not usually popular but we do so because we are tall enough to see tomorrow.
“I am glad to announce that we have two players in this squad that have played the Fufa TV Cup; John Brian Owino and Inshirah Mahyoub,” Magogo explained before further highlighting their Masterplan.
“The Technical Master Plan is the encyclopedia, bible of all of this. And everything you are going to see is coming from that well thought, structured, planned, resourced programme.
“If you want to chill with the big boys you must source talent. We have scouts in 46 districts of Uganda looking for talent aged 11 years and below.
“Once talent is identified, there must entities that absorb it such that there is a deliberate effort to develop them. That is why we have licensed 67 academies graded as two, three, and four (school programme) and these have been submitted to National Council of Sports for licensing.
“As a federation, we have drawn a football curriculum with five subjects; technique (friendship between player and ball), tactics (relationship between a player and those around them on pitch), conditioning (relationship between a player and their body), psychology (relationship between the player and the mind), and the relationship between player and the environment they live in.
“We also established Schools of Excellence which have our coaches and have given us 30 bursaries for the identified players,” Magogo shared.
The Fufa president also reserved congratulatory remarks for the players.
“I am told there is a storm in Ghana right now after we beat them but I have told their (Football Association) president to take heart as we have been victims of Ghana many times at various levels.
“The boys deserved to qualify because they played entertaining football. They were deliberate and taking decisions on the field of play.
“These youth pathways have created players like Byaruhanga Bobosi, Kenneth Ssemakula, Rogers Mato, Travis Mutyaba, Aziz Kayondo, Allan Okello, and James Bwogere who have since moved to the national team. And we believe that even these ones who are here have a journey because we intend to qualify for the (U-17) World Cup every year for the next five years so we have a pipeline of players feeding the senior national team.
“Even more importantly, I want to thank government led by President (Yoweri) Museveni and the (Minister of Sports and Education) First Lady (Janet) for funding these teams because we are now able to go. The U-17 World Cup was not invented today but has been around since 1985,” Magogo concluded.