Government wants say in salary discussions of new Cranes coach

The state minister in-charge of Sports, Charles Bakkabulindi, has asked the local football governing body, FUFA, to involve the government when discussing issues of remuneration for the new national coach to be appointed.

“If the football body thinks they will come running to get assistance to pay the national coach, then they should involve us in negotiating with the coach who will be taking over to handle the team,” Bakkabulindi said.

The position of national coach became vacant after Serbian born tactician Milutin ‘Micho’Sredojevic terminated his contract two months ago because of accumulated salary arrears. Sredojevic’s assistant Moses Basena has been serving as the interim coach.

But late last month FUFA opened the recruitment process with applications being received from on October 23-29th.

Head of the vetting panel Kalusha Bwalya, a former African player of the year and Zambia FA president together with four other members will scrutinise the applications before shortlisting the best.

The new national coach is expected to be announced on November 15th.

Bakkabulindi said that although the football body has requested that the government fully funds the national team including the salary of the national coach, he wants the recruitment process to be very transparent and also get the best coach for the country.

“I do not want a scenario where the FA will appoint a coach and simply tell the government is meant to pay a certain amount of money as salary for the coach,” he said.

Already coaches from Italy, Zambia, Kenya, Portugal and locals Jackson Mayanja, Sam Timbe and Basena have also applied for the job.

Besides former Uganda Cranes coach Bobby Williamson, experienced Claude Marie Francois Le Roy who won the 1988 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) trophy with Cameroon has also applied.

Edgar Watson, the Chief Executive Officer of of the Federation said by having a member of the National Council of Sports (NCS) be on the vetting panel, the government is involved in the process.

Although he did not mention which member of NCS will sit on the panel, inside sources indicate that former FUFA executive member and now assistant secretary general at NCS, Patrick Ogwel has been selected.