'Step aside' - Fufa throws McKinstry's Uganda future up in the air

The Federation of Uganda Football Associations has asked the head coach of the national team, Johnathan McKinstry, to step aside.

McKinstry's tenure as the Cranes' head coach came under furious scrutiny when Uganda failed to make a great impact at the African Nations Championship competition in Cameroon.

The Cranes were eliminated at the group stage after losses to Morocco and Togo and a draw against Rwanda. Since then, the Northern Irish coach has received criticism for the poor outing.

"The Fufa executive committee has asked the head coach of the national senior side the Uganda Cranes Mr Johnathan McKinstry to step aside from managing and coaching the team for the period from March 2nd- 31st, 2021," a statement of the federation read.

"In the meantime assistant coaches Mr Mubiru Abdallah, Mr Mbabazi Livingstone and goalkeeping coach Mr Kajoba Fred will take charge of the team during this period. The rest of the technical team remains unchanged. Fufa will use the period to assess and monitor the performance of the team."

Just after the Chan elimination, Fufa president Moses Magogo revealed that McKinstry's future would be determined by a final report that would be prepared by a technical team that had been charged to evaluate his reign.

“There is an evaluation which is going on, and I always listen to my technical people, even during the appointments, my job is to say yes or no,” Magogo said then.

“I am not saying we are going to fire him or not, but the fact is that there is an evaluation ongoing.

“At the moment, we are taking stock of what he has done since he arrived here and whatever the technical report that will come to us in the next few days, we will come out with a final decision.

“And as Fufa, we are not shy with our decision, we will come out and say that we have discontinued our engagement or we are giving him approval. I have my personal view as a Uganda fan but I believe that the technical people are better at analysing.”

McKinstry, who was set to name his Africa Cup of Nations qualifying squad, made a recent public appearance during a Premier League encounter at Kavumba when Express FC beat Kitara FC 1-0 on March 2.

Recently, Tanzania sacked Etienne Ndayiragije after their Chan group stage elimination.