Aucho responds after suspension from Cranes camp
Uganda Cranes midfielder Khalid Aucho has hit out at football authorities in the country a day after he was kicked out of the national team’s camp.
Aucho, formerly at Gor Mahia, was on Friday kicked out by the Federation of Uganda Football Association (FUFA) on disciplinary grounds.
He is set to miss the team’s remaining 2021 Africa Cup of Nations qualification matches against Burkina Faso and Malawi next week.
He was accused of failing to join camp immediately after he arrived in the country but has reacted by asking the federation to respect the fact that footballers have a personal life. He also suggested federation officials favour a clique of players.
“I know had to report to camp,” he told local media.
“I mean, that’s why I traveled here in the first place, but I also needed to briefly see my family. I take so much time away from them,”
“I told the person they had sent to pick me that I was not feeling well and immediately needed to see a doctor ascertain why my body was not functioning well,” Aucho narrated.
“I have accepted their decision and I’ll take it in good faith. I wish them good luck in the two games. But FUFA should also normalize respecting players because it’s we the players who sweat out there. You just can’t tarnish my hard-earned name like that. I don’t think I’m indisciplined as they’re claiming,” he said.
“I had just spent 4 hours in the country and I’m punished severely? Yet some players have spent 12 and others over 24 hours but they haven’t been penalized or anything,” he stressed.
Aucho is accused of refusing to board the official federation car organised to pick him from Entebbe International Airport to the team camp at Cranes Paradise Hotel.