It’s the saddest possible news for every football fan in Uganda and Tanzania, even for any Ugandan and Tanzanian who is not a football fan but likes to see their national flag fly high.
News coming in from the Confederation of African Football (CAF) headquarters in Cairo, Egypt, is that the Uganda Cranes and Taifa Stars have been disqualified from AFCON 2019 over playing syndicate in their last Group game of the tournament qualifiers.
The Cranes lost their last Group game to Tanzania’s Taifa Stars 3-0 in Dar-es-Salaam a week ago after an uninspired display, prompting CAF to conduct an investigation into whether the Cranes might have purposely played for a loss.
Now CAF has announced that the swift investigation it conducted over course of last week revealed the Uganda Cranes had indeed donated the match to Tanzania. You might actually say that the Ugabnda Cranes ‘sold’ the match to Tanzania, as CAF has indicated that findings of its swift investigation also reveal some money was involved in getting the Cranes to donate the match to Tanzania.
However, the continental football governing body is yet to reveal the details of the monies involved. CAF says it will reveal the details of the monies involved on Friday, when it will officially declare the Uganda Cranes and Taifa Stars disqualified from AFCON.
(This story is actually ‘Fake News’ in respect of April 1st Fool’s Day.)