Having won the bid last year, Uganda gets a golden opportunity to host Africa’s elite beach soccer finals. This means a lot for the country as it comes with multiple opportunities. Ugandans must prepare early enough to reap from this.
Since inception, Uganda has never hosted any continental football finals and this becomes the first opportunity the Pearl of Africa is getting. Hosting Africa in Uganda should be translated into many opportunities for our people right away from merchandise sellers to hotel owners and transport companies.
International media will for the entire period of the tournament be focusing on Uganda. So as a country we must utilize this period to market ourselves positively internationally.
Beside promoting our tourism, corporate companies must utilize this time to showcase their products and encourage foreign buyers to buy.
This hosting comes a long with challenges of beach soccer facilities which am sure will at the end be a benefit.Let’s sell Uganda as the pearl of Africa. Our focus must now be on embracing this opportunity and work with Fufa to deliver a more successful event.
I happened to attend the last one in Egypt last year which was hosted by Sharm El Sheikh on the shores of Red sea. Let’s bring out Uganda’s cultures and traditions to the outside world during this period.
Emphasis should now be on our partners, government, other agencies to passionately support Fufa to deliver this wonderful tournament.Uganda is known for its hospitality and must vividly show this to our visiting delegation.
Hosting such tournament of this magnitude means having CAF executive here, FIFA delegation, Beach Soccer worldwide officials and regional sports fraternity all in Uganda for almost 3 months. All these are translated into foreign exchange opportunity, job creation and many more.
As a country, we must strategize early enough to tap into these opportunities. Remember its Africa in Uganda. Fufa is there to present an opportunity to Ugandans to exploit positively.Uganda last year failed to qualify to the finals in Egypt after being eliminated by Ivory Coast 1-3 in Entebbe & 4-4 in Abidjan.
Its now or never to bring out our potential. 2020 is our year. Let’s support the boys, let’s support FUFA, UBSA and our country.
