Villa, KCCA appointments highlight dearth of local coaches 

The worst kept secret in Ugandan football in recent years has been the lack of quality soccer coaches adept with the 21st century trends of the game.

What Ugandan football has had in recent years has been a merry-go-round of coaches whose claim to fame is largely owed to their playing career and not tactical nous. But top clubs appear to have had enough and made the carefully-thought decision to venture into the somewhat tested world of foreign coaches.

Weeks ago, SC Villa appointed Dusan Stojanovic on a two-year deal. The Serbian has been entrusted with the sizeable task of restoring the glory days at Uganda’s most successful club. Stojanovic will be hoping to emulate his compatriot Micho Sredojevic, the current Uganda Cranes coach, who enjoyed a hugely successful spell at the Jogoos when he was appointed as coach in 2002.

Other than Micho’s times, SC Villa’s most glorious period was in the early 90s when Geoff Hudson was in charge. Back then, the Magid Musisi-inspired team reached back-to-back continental finals and, in that period, became a household name in African club football.

Hajj Omar Mandela was a key member of the club’s executive in that period and as president now, it is easy to see why he would be inclined to favour a non-Ugandan coach for SC Villa.

SC Villa’s rivals KCCA, meanwhile, had appeared reluctant to hire a foreign coach. But their preference for a Ugandan wilted due to lack of options in the domestic game. Once Morley Byekwaso stood down, the club’s hierarchy was hard-pressed to make a shortlist of local candidates.

The names floated around had previously been associated with the club and there was a general consensus in the club’s management that the institution needed to go forward with new personalities and new methods.

The stock of Mike Mutebi, once unanimously considered the best coach in the country, has fallen so low that his otherwise impressive CV is not compelling enough to put him in the reckoning for jobs at clubs like Villa, KCCA and Vipers.

At St Mary’s stadium where Vipers have won their first ever double, the jury remains on coach Alex Isabirye. Dr Lawrence Mulindwa, the Vipers owner, is notoriously trigger-happy and Isabirye, if he is entrusted with the job of guiding the Venoms on the continent, will have to orchestrate a rich vein of form for his side.

Despite recurrent disappointments with coaches like Javier Martinez and Beto Bianchi, Mulindwa has always had a bias towards foreign coaches in the St Mary’s stadium dugout and the thought – of whether to put Isabirye in charge or have him deputise for a more experienced, continental coach – in most likelihood, remains.

It is nearly two decades since the Cranes coaching job was handed to a Ugandan. The federation has consistently leaned towards appointing foreign coaches despite the cost that comes with hiring them. That in itself is an indictment on the quality of coaches in and around the game in the last 20 years.

The state of the game in the country would do with a new breed of coaches whose mindset is worlds away from the names that have hovered around Uganda Premier League dugouts without achieving or masterminding the transformation in culture and style of play needed to elevate the standards of the various national teams.