After the Cranes failure yet again at continental level, all Ugandan Super League sides will effective from the 2009/10 season be required to have junior teams in order to have fully developed youth structures.“A football club must have youth structures at times starting as low as U-13,” Justus Mugisha, Fufa official in charge of youth development told the press.
“The Manchester United and Ajax Amsterdam academies that nurtured talents like David Beckham, Paul Scholes, Nwankwo Kanu and Marco Van Basten are classic examples of very successful academies.”
He went on: “We shall for a start require the clubs to have U-17 teams before adding more under age categories in subsequent seasons.”
This move by the federation is intended to strengthen Uganda’s youth soccer structures. The youth sides will, like their senior teams, be kept active in a league.
Lack of solid talent development structures for the Cranes was one of the reasons given for Uganda’s poor performance over the years at international level.
However, Mugisha said FUFA’s idea of youth development was not prompted by the Cranes’ failure to advance. Currently 16- time league champions SC Villa has junior side.
Nearly the entire Villa side including runner-up for FUFA’s Footballer Player award Stephen Bengo are products of the club's youth side known as Jogoo Young.
The great KCC side of the seventies and eighties was also hinged on a solid youth development structure with a junior side City Cubs.
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