Confusuion In Cranes Camp

Kumasi-- WHAT had been expected finally exploded when Cranes head coach Mohammed Abbas and his assistant Sam Simbwa flexed infront of their players and team manager Chris Mubiru after the Thursday evening training session.

The exchange came after Simbwa delayed the team bus as he answered questions from journalists.

“Assistant coach not supposed to talk too much,” said Abbas before he ordered the driver to take the team back to their hotel.

It had already been announced that chief de mission John Matovu was the only official supposed to speak to the press; an action which hurt Abbas and moreso that his junior was speaking unhindered.

“I am not a child. I went to school unlike you,” Ssimbwa shot back and a barrage of words followed as the manager and team doctor Ronald Kisolo looked on.

“I know football. I am not stupid. You are stupid,” answered Abbas. Ssimbwa shot back: “I am a Ugandan and you should know your limits.

“You are just a foreigner. I am a German-trained grade one coach, unlike you.”

The players looked on in awe. Even the security looked too frightened to help.

At some point, the two rose from their seats and a fight would have started in the moving bus hadn't a journalist calmed the situation.

The chief de mission was not yet around for a comment.

The Uganda delegation, meanwhile, snubbed a request by the hosts to change the game's match time.

The Cranes technical team shunned a proposal by the Ghanaians, who requested that tomorrow's 2006 World Cup/Africa Nations Cup encounter be played an hour and half earlier.

Despite communicating that the match would be played at the CAF official time of 4.30pm, the hosts contacted the managers, seeking to switch the time to 3pm because they “wanted Ugandans to have a better view of Accra after the match.”

“The reason was not convincing and we just declined,” said Mubiru. Burundi referees Jean Marie Hicu, Desire Gahunga, Jean Marie Bizimana and Athanese Niyongaho will handle the match.

Bena Doumdin of Ivory Coast is the CAF match inspector with Camara Kabele from Guinea as commissioner.