Steven Keshi was right when he opined that African coaches could do better for our African Football teams. Less than two months after the AFCON 2013 Nations Cup, the suggestion is becoming an obvious fact.
Bobby Williamson, Uganda’s long serving coach for two- and- a- half years has been sacked. Such was the message on the Federation of Uganda Football Association’s (FUFA) website on April 1st; then it was ‘April Fool!’ Six days after that FUFA’s hilarious jape, they went on and sack him for real.
While football fans all over the world were beginning to get over such expensive joke, the former Kilmarnock and Hibbs manager received the news from his superior that, with Uganda having lost 2- 0 to Liberia to leave them bottom of their World Cup qualifying group with just two points from three games, the Scotsman had been relieved of his duties with immediate effect.
Steven Keshi must be giggling to himself about the whole incidence. In the last two weeks, Lars Olaf Mattsson resigned from his post in Sierra Leone and Bobby Williamson was sacked from his job in Uganda, making the list of foreign coach casualties grow.
Perhaps even a local coach would not far better under the conditions and circumstances these foreign coaches had operated. Perhaps they would, because they would have understood the challenges better. In the middle of all these, I expect football federations in Africa to be clear as to when a foreign coach is relevant and when not, so we can save even the foreign coaches of the mess.
