Museveni to launch CHAN tourney on Friday

With less than a fortnight to kick off, the CHAN 2024 tournament will get rolling when President Yoweri Museveni launches the event at Kololo Ceremonial grounds on Friday.

The tournament’s organization and preparations has encountered numerous bumps and humps seeing how it is the first time a continental tournament of its magnitude is hosted by three countries. But organisers are insistent that come August 2, the tournament will kick off smoothly among the countries of Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania.

CAF officials continue arriving in the three East African countries and on Monday, a delegation from the continental governing body made visits of the FUFA Stadium at Kadiba, Kyambogo and KISU training grounds.

Billboard have started to be erected around the city and areas of Wakiso in the clearest indication that competition is upon the country. Never before has East Africa hosted a sporting event of this magnitude and all three countries will want to put on the best show possible to advertise themselves to the world both from the perspective of sport and tourism.

It is symbolic that President Museveni will preside over the launch having been at the forefront of the bid together with the First Lady and Minister of Education & Sports Janet Museveni.

While CHAN 2024 will be a tournament that the local organizing committees of Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania will want to get right, the reality is that the tournament is viewed as a dry-run for the 2027 PAMOJA Africa Cup of Nations which is the much bigger and more prestigious event.

The CHAN tournament, which is the Championship of African Nations, is a sister event of the Africa Cup of Nations. The main difference is that while CHAN is a tournament in which only home-based players are eligible, the Africa Cup of Nations involves the national football teams and thus includes players plying their trade away from home.

That explains why footballers like Khalid Aucho, Denis Omedi, Bobosi Byaruhanga and Ismail Watenga will all be ineligible for CHAN. They are all playing their football out of the country.

Uganda will be attempting to qualify from the group stage for the first time ever having been a perennial participant at the event but always falling short at the first hurdle. Cranes coach Paul Put, whose team is in Tanzania for a CECAFA engagement which for all intents and purposes is a build-up competition for CHAN, has assembled a squad that is rich in senior national team experience, youth and grit.

Put will need to employ the right tactical acumen to steer Uganda out of Group C which has South Africa, Niger, Algeria and Guinea Conakry. While Uganda will use only Mandela National Stadium for CHAN, Kenya have been cleared to use Kasarani and Nyayo while Tanzania will use the Benjamin Mkapa stadium in Dar es Salaam and Amaan Stadium in Zanzibar.

The CHAN tournament has integrated various government entities and agencies who have been tasked to use their numerous platforms to leverage around the tournament in showcasing Uganda to the world.

Having won the bid to host PAMOJA, the government has embarked on concurrent infrastructure projects all over the country to improve on the facilities of the sports sub- sector.

The Hoima stadium is due to be completed in December and will be used for the 2027 PAMOJA tournament while work continues at the John Akii-Bua stadium in Lira.

While the John Akii-Bua stadium will be on standby for the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations, it will go a long way in transforming a region whose potential is evidenced in the name of a legend who was the country’s first genuine international sports hero having won the 1972 Munich Olympics 400m hurdles gold in a world record time.

The work to revamp Namboole, build Hoima stadium and John Akii-Bua is coinciding with the final touches at the Teryet High Altitude Training Centre and a host of various other multi-purpose sports arena upgrades.

More significantly, what CHAN has done is help in the renovation and rehabilitation of long-overdue sites like Wankulukuku stadium and Kyambogo sports ground which needed a facelift.

CHAN has also been pivotal in ensuring that FUFA Kadiba Stadium and KISU are re-done to meet CAF standards ahead of the tournament. Facilities like these will be some of the legacy benefits that will enhance the pool of facilities desperately needed in building and shaping a 21st century sporting culture in the country.

For so long, Uganda had descended into doldrums in global sport but from the time Moses Kipsiro secured double Commonwealth Golf at the 2010 New Delhi Games and Stephen Kiprotich won marathon gold at the London 2012 Olympics, there has been an upturn in sporting fortunes both in accolades and how government perceives the sub-sector.

The hosting of CHAN 2024 AND AFCON 2027 can only elevate Uganda into a new sporting stratosphere.

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