Uganda

Home, 2005

In the early days of starting this collection, I was still a poor student and trying to do it as cheaply as possible. It meant I missed out on some rare shirts that were just too expensive for me but sometimes a shirt that I really wanted would fly under the radar (usually on eBay sites outside of the UK or US), and allow me to grab a bargain. This is one of those, winning it on Ebay for €20, including the postage from Germany.  There is a real lack of information on how long this shirt was used for, but we do know it was definitely used in 2005 in a World Cup 2006 qualifier. Though in at least one other game in that campaign, Uganda were wearing unbranded shirts.

Hummel also supplied the 2001 away shirt, which I consider one of the all time great shirts. I do own it, and will add it to the site later. But why I bring it up now, is that the Hummel contract came shortly after a fairly odd situation the Ugandan football federation (FUFA) managed to get themselves into. In 2000, FUFA were fined $2000 by CAF for wearing Inter Milan shirts in a competitive game at the CECAFA Cup, a regional competition for east and central African teams. According to reports from the time, the association bought the shirts themselves for the team for about $80 from an unnamed source. In the pre-game picture, the players look understandably embarrassed to be wearing them, most of them trying to hide the ‘Pirelli’ sponsorship. Then FUFA secretary Godfrey Kisekka said after the game, and before the fine was issued, "Let those writing about jerseys go and write, this was not a fashion show”. To make it even worse, the shirts appear to be fakes. The real Inter tops from that season had no black trim on the collar and the v-neck was black. It is not unusual for African team to wear fake brand-name shirts with their own crests, but I think this is the first time I have seen a national team wear fake club shirts in a game.

Back to this shirt though, the crest features the grey crowed crane, which also can be found on the flag of Uganda and lends itself to the team's "Cranes" nickname. The "UGANDA" text and the crest are sublimated, but the Hummel logo and sleeve chevrons are a hard felt material. I really like the predominantly African tradition of nations putting their name on the front of shirt. The alternating red and black stripes reflect the Ugandan flag.

The Uganda team themselves have never made the break-through onto the World Cup stage, and a second place at the 1978 ACN is to-date their best achievement at pan-continental level.  That is not to say they are losers, far from it.  They have won a whopping 15 CECAFA Cups at the time of writing, including the 2019 tile.  And they also took home the 1989 Peace and Friendship Cup from Kuwait.