Andrew Mwanguhya
24 March 2011
When Federation of Uganda Football Associations (Fufa) named the qualifiers team to the 2012 London Olympic Games, a lot went unexplained. As if to confirm the confusion, each Ugandan publication woke up with their own team labels.
Fufa called it the U-21, the team they released on March 2. But the known fact is football for the Olympics and All Africa Games is always played in the under-23 age group.
The Olympic teams are officially called the U-23 by Fifa and All Africa Games side the U-23 by Caf. Not U-21. And a response from Fifa when we sought clarification on the matter was hardly different. “The Fifa regulations of the Olympic Football Tournaments London 2012 state the following (article 8),” said a statement from Fifa competitions committee.
“All players participating in the preliminary and final competitions (men’s tournament) shall be born on or after January 1, 1989. However, a maximum of three male players who do not meet this age limit may also be included in the official list of players for the final competition.”
So which side did Fufa exactly name and for which competition? “We named the U-21s because we were looking at the January 1, 1989, the date for which one should have been born to play at the London Games,” explained Fufa CEO Edgar Watson, who also admitted Olympics sides are officially called the U-23s.
“So in naming the U-21s, we were targeting that these boys would be U-23 by 2012. And we also wanted to promote the U-20s that beat Eritrea last year (to lift the Cecafa U-20 title).
“We also have the U-23 side to play Tanzania in the All Africa Games qualifier in April so we didn’t want to use those because they would be overage by 2012.”
Uganda host Congo Brazzaville on Saturday as they start to pursue a slot to the 2012 Olympics.
AllAfrica – All the Time