Uganda ready to host World Cup qualifiers — FUFA boss

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Federation of Uganda Football Associations (FUFA) president Moses Magogo says they are ready to host the World Cup 2026 qualifier matches in June at Mandela National Stadium aka Namboole Stadium.

Magogo, who is also Budiope East MP, posted the revelation on X, formerly Twitter, on Thursday, May 2.

According to him, they engaged the Confederation of African Football (CAF) and insisted that they were ready to host the matches.

“They asked us to organise matches to test our capacity,” he said.

He later noted on Friday, May 3, 2024, that even with challenges, the Namboole test games were largely a success.

The test event on Wednesday (May 1) saw Bull FC beat Vipers 1-0 and KCCA trounce SC Villa 2-0 in the StarTimes Uganda Premier League.

“People need to understand that Mandela National Stadium renovation works are still ongoing, but as @OfficialFUFA, we pressed the contractors [the engineering brigade of the Uganda People’s Defence Forces] because we need to host the matches in June here,” Magogo said.

He added that organising a football match has costs and the test matches costed not less than shillings 60 million. He thanked whoever promoted the games.

“We observed and identified the challenges and this was the purpose of the #NambooleTestGames. If you concentrate on only the challenges then you are not fair because the contractor is yet to handover,” he said.

“The efforts we are making are to ensure that we host our games here and we expect a decision in about a week or two. Some of the pending issues the contractors have assured us will be complete by that time,” Magogo assured the country.

The African continent has a guaranteed nine qualifiers for the 2026 finals in Canada, Mexico and the US, with all group winners booking a spot at the tournament.