Crested Cranes to face Rwanda in Olympics qualifier

The Uganda national senior women's football team, the Crested Cranes, has been drawn against East African rivals She-Amavubi of Rwanda in the first round of the 2024 Women's Olympic Football Tournament (WOFT) qualifier.

This comes after the draws were conducted at the continental football governing body, CAF headquarters in Cairo, Egypt on Tuesday.

A total of 25 teams entered the Olympic qualifying tournament, with 18 set to be involved in the first round while the remaining seven, including African champions South Africa, are the highest-ranked teams from last year’s TotalEnergies Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (WAFCON) who got a bye to join the competition in the second round.

And from the first round draws, Uganda will first host Rwanda in Kampala in July before the two sides meet later in Kigali where the winner will meet Cameroon in the second round.

Guinea battles Ghana in an anticipated entertaining West African derby, Burkina Faso will be up against Mali, among other encounters.

The first round matches will be held between July 10-18, 2023 while the second round matches will be played between 23-31 October before the third round scheduled for February 19-28, 2024 ahead of the last round that will be held in April 2024.

At the last Olympics in Tokyo, Japan, Africa was represented by Zambia but the continent’s slots have been increased to two starting with the Paris 2024.

North and South American confederations have one (taken already by Brazil) and two (Columbia and United States) slots respectively, while Europe will have two more slots added on top of the hosts France.

But apparently, the Crested Cranes have no technical bench available for the immediate summoning of the players for duty, after the local football governing body FUFA declared the George Lutaro and company positions vacant after last year’s WAFCON in Morocco.

It is anticipated that FUFA will now make an immediate reaction by naming the next Crested Cranes coach and other underage national team technical staff, following the draws.

Crested Cranes broke a 22-year jinx to make it back to the continental stage in the 2022 WAFCON held in Morocco where they finished bottom of group A with 1 point and 3 goals scored by Sumaya Komuntale, Margret Kunihira, and Sandra Nabweteme.

This had come on top of winning their maiden CECAFA championship following a 3-1 win over Burundi in the final played at FUFA Technical Center Njeru in the same year.

On paper, this looks like an easy task for the CECAFA champions as they have not registered a loss against Rwandans in the recent past.

First round draws

Uganda vs Rwanda

Guinea Bissau vs Benin,

Guinea vs Ghana

Burkina Faso vs Mali

Cote d’Ivoire vs Sierra Leone

Namibia vs Equatorial Guinea

Ethiopia vs Chad

Congo vs Tanzania

Mozambique vs DR Congo.

Second round draws

Guinea Bissau/Benin vs Guinea/Ghana

Burkina Faso/Mali vs Zambia

Cote d’Ivoire/Sierra Leone vs Tunisia

Namibia/Equatorial Guinea vs Morocco

Uganda/Rwanda vs Cameroon

Ethiopia/Chad vs Nigeria

Congo/Tanzania vs Botswana

Mozambique/DR Congo vs South Africa.