Ugandan are true sport fanatics!! There are over 20 sports organized by associations. Football (soccer), athletics, boxing, golf and many more are being performed.

Football

The most popular sport is football, organized by the Federation of Uganda Football Association(FUFA). There is no real professional league but two national championships are played every year. There are also football clubs the numerous children can join. One of the most popular one is SC Villa.

The absence of a professional league is the reason for the modest results of the national team (The Cranes). The biggest success they could celebrate was at the CECAFA Senior Challenge Cup (Council of East and central Africa Football Association), a championship between eastern and central african countries. At this championship they hold a record of 10 titels since the inauguration tournament in 1973. Recently they won in this cup final 1:0 against Kenya.

In the FIFA world rankings Uganda is ranked 70st with 457 points. For comparision here a list with Uganda and German speaking european countries (June 2010):

• Germany: Ranked 4th, 1464 points
• Switzerland: Ranked 18nd, 940 point
• Austria: Ranked 60th, 536 points
• Uganda: Ranked 70th, 457 points
• Luxemburg: ranked 116th, 209 points
• Lichtenstein: Ranked 140nd, 126 points

The biggest success was a runner up position at the Africa Cup Championship in 1978. Uganda has never qualified for the finals in the FIFA world cup. At the moment Uganda plays in the 3rd group with Angola, Benin und Niger for the qualification to South Africa in 2010.

You can watch a league match in Kampala in two stadiums:

• Nakivubo War Memorial Stadium from SC Villa, 15.000 seats, Kampala P.O Box 1859, Plot 7 Namirembe Road
• Nelson Mandela Sport Stadium, Jinja Road, Namboole, 45.000 seats

Related Links about football in Uganda

• Website of the Federation of Ugandan Football Association
• Website of SC Villa
• Background information on the CECAFA Senior Challenge Cup
• Summary of the FIFA world ranking (Uganda ranked 94th, December 2007)
• Results of Uganda at the African Championship
• Results of Uganda in the qualifications for FIFA world cup 2010 in South Africa
• Football stadiums in Uganda

Athletics

Internationally Ugandans have been more successful at athletics. Since 1956 there have always been Ugandan athletes at the start at the Olympic Summer Games. The historical table of medals since the beginning of Olympic games lists Uganda on 71st position with 6 medals. The most outstanding one is the gold medal win by John Akii-Bua over 400m hurdles at the Olympic Games in Munich beating the world record in 1972. In the year 2005 Dorcus Inzicuru won the gold medal in der world championship in Helsinki in 3000 meter hurdles.

Related Links

• Historical medal table of the Olympic Games
• Ugandan medal winners at the Olympic Summer games
• Background information regarding Olympic champion John Akii-Bua in 1972
• Background information regarding Dorcus Inzicuru

Boxing

Boxing has become increasingly important. Besides the success at the Olympics they managed to win some medals a the Commonwealth Games.

Golf

Golf gets more and more popular. In recent times fantastic golf courses have been developed in Kampala, Entebbe and Jinja, which are open for tourists by means of short memberships. The most popular ones are:

• Kampala Golf Club, Kitante Road, Kampala, 18 hole course
• Entebbe Golf Club, Entebbe Road, Entebbe, 9 hole course
• Garuga Golf and Country Club, Entebbe Road, Entebbe, 18 hole course
• Jinja Club, Nile Crescent Road, Jinja (at the Lake Victoria), 9 hole course

Additional sports and contacts

The range of sports for tourists is adequate to good. Besides the golf mentioned above there are further possibilities for bowling, mountain biking, horse riding (e.g see "Nile Horseback Safaris" ), swimming, sailing, squash and tennis. A good up-to-date overview and a lot of contact information you get from the website of the tourist information magazine "The Eye Magazine"

Related link for tourist information

• Uganda on the website "The Eye Magazine"