The Ugandan football federation( FUFA) has sacked coach Milutin Sredjovic Micho after the nation's failure to qualify for African Nations Cup finals next year.
In a brief statement on Thursday evening ,FUFA said both parties had agreed to mutually part ways.
“FUFA and Mr. Milutin Sredojevic agreed to mutually end the existing employment contract between the two parties. FUFA appreciates all efforts and commitment by Mr. Milutin during his period as Head coach of Uganda Cranes,” the statement said .
Micho’s sacking comes on the backdrop of the failure by Uganda to qualify for the AFCON finals for a second successive time .
Uganda finished third, a point below second placed Tanzania and nine points below tabled leaders Algeria to miss out on playing in next year’s AFCON finals to be played in Ivory Coast.
Micho returned as Cranes coach for a second stint in 2021 and signed a three-year contract succeeding Abdallah Mubiru, who served as an interim coach after Jonathan McKinstry's departure.
He had earlier been in charge of the Ugandan national team between 2013 and 2017 where he in 2016 guided the Cranes to their first ever Afcon tournament after a period of 38 years .
Prior to his departure in 2017, Micho accused the local football governing body, FUFA of failure to pay his salary arrears to a tune of $54,000.
In a rebuttal, FUFA president, Eng Moses Magogo said the Serbian had been offered a deal that would see his salary doubled and that he had rejected it.
In response to FUFA’s claims, Micho shot back saying they were not true.
“I have never rejected a double salary offer but would be biggest moron on this planet if I accepted promise of double yet even single was never paid,” he tweeted.
On his second stint with the Cranes, things didn’t go as expected as the Ugandan national team displayed a dismal performance, especially in the AFCON qualifiers.
For example, Uganda failed to win a game on home soil in the qualifiers and only settled for a draw with the underdogs in the group Niger in a game played at Kitende.
This state of affairs haunted the Cranes until the last day of the qualifiers when the team failed to go to the AFCON finals despite being in a fairly weak group where Uganda was regarded as the second best team behind Algeria.
In March this year when football fans complained of the team’s poor performance, many called for Micho’s head.
However, FUFA kept trust in him as all national team coaches were sacked.
FUFA president Moses Magogo defended the decision.
“As Ugandans, we may not be happy about the results the national team is getting but we must also face the reality. Transition of teams is a reality and the only route you can take to get back. We don’t want to make rushed decisions. As FUFA, we are giving ourselves time and we will make assessment after the qualification campaign,”Magogo said.
Magogo insisted that Micho needs to be supported and given more time and that assessing his performance will be done after the AFCON qualification campaign.
“What has made us stand the test of time is that we are not emotional when taking these decisions, if we took them emotionally, so many things could have gone wrong. We sit down, reflect before acting accordingly. Let’s give him more time to conclude this campaign.”