Cranes Captain, shot stopper Denis Onyango, has assured Ugandans that they have put the demons of striking to rest and the team is now ready to beat Senegal tomorrow in the round of sixteen encounter at the ongoing African Cup of Nations in Egypt.
Yesterday, at around 11PM (local time) the Uganda Cranes finally came out of their Radisson Blue Hotel in Heliopolis, Cairo and boarded the team bus to train at the Arab Contractors Stadium for the first time, following a sit down strike over bonus arrears.
Now captain Denis Onyango while addressing journalists on Thursday July 4th said their disagreements with the Federation of Uganda’s Football Association (FUFA) are now in the past, as they are now focusing on tomorrow’s game against Senegal.
“We were back in training yesterday and we’re now looking forward to the game that is ahead of us. We have got a nation to fight for and we have so many Ugandans back home that are looking up to us. We have forgotten our disagreements with the federation. It’s in the past now,” Onyango said in part.
Yesterday, FUFA held a crisis meeting at the Cranes hotel in Cairo and another Executive committee around the same time was held in Kampala to try and forge a way forward for the players who had put down their tools.
FUFA later came out in a statement saying that they had agreed to play each of the players in the Cranes camp an additional $6000 in bonus payments.
According to the Nile Post team in Cairo, players also held another private meeting without any coaches and federation officials for about three and a half hours before they boarded the bus to their training grounds.
The team will now face Senegal tomorrow, Friday at 9PM Ugandan time.
