Uganda coach Micho Sredojevic is not receiving well news of Cranes playing preliminaries to negotiate their way to next year’s Orange Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco.
According to guidelines approved at a Caf executive meeting in Cape Town, South Africa last Friday, the top 21 seeded teams out of the 51 countries that will take part in the qualifiers will go directly to group stage in September.
Not for Uganda, though. Ranked 26th with 6.5 pts because of poor performance in qualifiers for 2012, 2013 Afcon and the 2014 World Cup, Uganda and the rest outside 21 top seeded teams will participate in the preliminaries due May – August.
The 28 teams (including seven that will have made it from preliminaries) will then be divided in seven groups of four, with matches being played on September 5th to November19th.
The top two from the seven groups (previously it has been group leaders and second placed to qualify) and the third-place best team from the seven groups will join hosts Morocco.
This has left Micho perplexed, the coach claiming the information they had while in SA on Chan duty was that they would go straight into the group stages.
“If what you are telling me is true, then it is very incorrect for planning because that means after the draws you immediately go into qualifying games,” Micho told SuperSport.com, adding, “Up until now I’m shocked they have gone that way.” The draws are due April 27.
“We’ll wait to know our opponents and follow the rules but it’s impossible to plan with such sudden situations.
”But anyway, after Chan, we have finalized selection of a pool of players we think will be part of the campaign. If we can get one friendly match before May, that will be okay.” The tournament will be held in four Moroccan cities of Rabat, Agadir, Tanger and Marrakech.
Uganda, who were recently eliminated from Chan in the group stages, last appeared at the Nations Cup in 1978, then 2-0 losing finalists to hosts Ghana.
Source: Supersport
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