Uganda Cranes’ planned international friendly matches against Tanzania and Madagascar in Morocco have been cancelled due to public health concerns linked to the Ebola outbreak in Uganda.
The Federation of Uganda Football Associations (FUFA) confirmed the development on Wednesday, stating that the decision was communicated by Moroccan authorities on sanitary and public health grounds.
The Uganda national team had travelled to Morocco on Sunday ahead of the two friendly matches, which were scheduled for June 5 against Tanzania and June 8 against Madagascar in Marrakech.
More friendly matches involving East African nations in Morocco have been canceled.
This, is as a result of measures put in place by Moroccan authorities following the Ebola situation in the East African region.
The friendlies were part of Uganda Cranes’ preparations for upcoming international assignments, including the 2027 AFCON.
The national team contingent departed Uganda on Sunday and for encounters against Tanzania on June 5 and Madagascar on June 8.
A team of 18 players including Four foreign-based players travelled with the locally based squad from Uganda.
The foreign-based players included Allan Okello of Yanga SC, Rogers Mato of Hearts of Oak, Travis Mutyaba of CS Sfaxien, and Aziz Kayondo of Slovan Liberec.
The cancellation comes as a setback for head coach Paul Put and his technical team, who had hoped to use the matches to assess players and fine-tune preparations ahead of upcoming engagements.
It’s expected that the team will be subjected to a quarantine during this period while in Morocco.
It is strong to remember that Uganda Cranes had their matches against Bahrain and Madagascar in the previous window in March, that were set to be played in Turkey, canceled due to insecurity.
By press time, 15 Ebola cases have been confirmed with only 1 death, as reported by Uganda’s Ministry of Healthy.
Recently, FIBA Africa withdrew hosting rights from Uganda for the FIBA U18 Zone Afrobasket Qualifiers due to Ebola.
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