Uganda Cranes players have been rewarded with a million dollar bucks by President Yoweri Museveni, days after exiting the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) at the knockout stage with a brilliant performance.
Cranes, who had staged a sitting demanding to be paid their allowances, will each player walk home with an equivalent of Ksh.5million courtesy of the President who admitted he followed all their games live in his sitting room.
The President made the remarks when he hosted the Uganda Cranes contingent at the State House in Entebbe.
“Indeed,I’m delighted.You played very well beyond our expectations. Trully, you have done the country very proud and the region. As a football fan I’m happy and will give you 1 million dollars to share among yourselves,” said Museveni.
He directed the players to get the lion’s share more that the officials“Of course the players have to get much more than the officials,The players are our eyes and when they perform well or bad,we focus on the players who were on the pitch” he added.
Uganda was the only team from East Africa which reached the tournament’s round of 16.
Cranes beat DR Congo 2-0, drew 1-1 with Zimbabwe and lost 2-0 to hosts Egypt in her Group matches before losing 1-0 to Senegal in the knockout stage.
The players had earlier received approximately Sh3 million as winning bonuses and camping allowance at the tournament and are now set for a further Sh2.5 million following the president’s latest contribution.
But prior to their match against Senegal, the Cranes camp had been hit by a players strike in the wake of a bonus row.
For two days the players refused to train to protest ‘unpaid’ bonuses amounting to Sh600,000 for each one of them, for beating DR Congo and drawing with Zimbabwe.
Uganda Cranes coach Sébastien Desabre has quit, barely a day after the team’s elimination from the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations.
A statement released by the Federation of Uganda Football Associations (Fufa) on Sunday explained that the French coach and his employer had ‘mutually agreed to terminate the contract between the two parties’.
