On May 15, 2023, Kenya President William Ruto formally gave a thumbs up to the bid at State House Nairobi.
Flanked by Sports Cabinet Secretary Ababu Namwamba, Principal Secretary Jonathan Mueke, and Football Kenya Federation (FKF) president;
President Ruto described the bid, dubbed East African Pamoja (together) bid, as a sports project that will unite and market the three countries.
“We intend to launch a compelling bid that will succeed in winning the critical opportunity to make Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania the epicenters of regional and continental footballing resurgence.”Said Ruto.
But What’s in it for Uganda?
Even though the finer details of the bid, which is expected to be submitted to the Confederation of African Football (Caf) on May 17, 2023, remain scanty;
Pulse Sports has established Kenya as fronting three stadiums, namely Moi International Sports Centre, Kasarani, and Nyayo Stadium in Nairobi, alongside the Kipchoge Keino Stadium in Eldoret, some 400km from the capital Nairobi as host venues.
The training grounds include Kasarani Annex, Ulinzi Complex, and the Police Sacco stadium, all based in Nairobi.
CAF rules on hosting this tournament dictate the training facilities must have at least one dressing room equipped with 23 seats and lockers.
Also, two movable goals, floodlights with a minimum capacity of 500 LUX, and natural grass, hybrid, or artificial turf like the main stadiums have to be available.
CAF Requirements for the Bidders
As per the CAF stadium regulation edition 2022, the stadiums for competitions are classified into four categories, with AFCON, Champions League semis and final, Africa Super League, and Chan venues falling in Category 4— the highest in terms of standards.
Among other things, all stadiums must have at least 30,000 seats as per category four and must install turnstiles at all gates from the outside gates to the terrace gates along with CCTV monitors.
Padded VIP and VVIP seats separated from each other, as well as a media center, media tribune, press conference room that can host 50 media personnel, a mixed zone, photographers’ area, OB van area and VAR operation room, are the other key requirements.
Where does Uganda Stand?
In July 2022, CAF president Patrice Motsepe while on a two-day work visit, encouraged Uganda and Tanzania to have a joint 2027 AFCON bid.
Motsepe met President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, who re-affirmed the government’s support towards sport.
“When we came into government in 1986, Uganda’s economy had collapsed,” Museveni said then.
“So our immediate intervention and mission was to revive the economy; now that the economy is doing better, we shall put more funding in sports,” he added.
Since then, the Ugandan Parliament passed a proposal to support the joint bid and with Kenya also coming into the picture; the bid now has the three East African nations.
Uganda’s Facilities
Currently, Uganda has no CAF-certified facility, with the Namboole stadium in the capital Kampala under renovations to meet the required CAF standards.
Nakivubo Stadium, which is also based in Kampala and has been under renovation since 2017, is also under scrutiny.
Its location and design make it hard for it to be classified by CAF to host any competitions.
Despite Uganda being on the back foot amongst the three countries with facilities, Federation of Uganda Football Association (FUFA) president Moses Magogo isn’t worried one bit.
“Fellow Ugandans, get out of the occupied mindset of negativity, AFCON hosting is awarded on plans not guarantees, not what you have,” The Budiope East MP stated.
