Uganda will not be at the
Fifa World Cup™in Russia later this year. Despite conceding two goals, the Cranes failed to qualify on the 10th attempt stretching from the 1978 edition after losing the available ticket to Egypt last year.
The latter nation is back at the global showpiece for the first time in 28 years thanks to phenomenal Mohamed Salah who managed five goals throughout the qualifiers. While Uganda waits for Qatar 2022, the World Cup trophy will be in Kampala from March 5-6. This is one of the 91 selected cities for the Fifa World Cup Trophy Tour in 51 countries across six continents.
Kampala is one of the 12 Africa cities in the global leg sponsored by Coca-Cola whose launch ceremony at London Stansted Airport featured winners England’s Sir Geoff Hurst (1966) and Italian Andrea Pirlo (2006). The trophy will come from Cape Town on March 4 and after Uganda’s capital, it heads to Nigeria’s city Abuja.
“Following the success of the first phase of the Fifa World Cup Trophy Tour, which gave more than 220,000 people across Russia the chance to see the FIFA World Cup Trophy with their own eyes, we are very excited to now offer this unforgettable opportunity to football fans around the world,” Fifa’s chief commercial officer Phillipe Le Floc’h said.
“The next few months are going to bring joy and wonder to hundreds of thousands of people from over 50 countries, and we thank Coca-Cola for partnering with us in taking the FIFA World Cup to the world.” It is not the first time this prestigious trophy will be coming to Kampala. It was also here before the 2010 World Cup.
The trophy will traverse 16,000 miles with the journey having begun in Colombo, Sri Lanka. This kind of tour begun in 2006 and the Trophy visited 29 countries and resulted in over 175,000 fans taking an official photo next to it.
For the second edition, the Tour visited 84 countries, 50 of which were on the African continent. Almost one million fans took their photo with the trophy. In 2014, the trophy had visited 90 countries over a 267-day period. During this time some 1.3 million fans got up close to the trophy.
2018 FIFA World Cup™ trophy tour
| DESTINATION |
DATE |
| Colombo, Sri Lanka |
January 23-24 |
| Male, Maldives |
January 24-25 |
| Phuket, Thailand |
January 26-27 |
| Vientiane, Laos |
January 28 |
| Macau, China P.R |
January 29 |
| Nukualofa, Tonga |
January 31 |
| Honiara, Solomon Islands |
February 1 |
| Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea |
February 1 |
| Lahore, Pakistan |
February 3 |
| Almaty, Kazakhstan |
February 4 |
| Bishkek, Kyrgyz Republic |
February 5 |
| Dushanbe, Tajikistan |
February 5 |
| Tashkent, Uzbekistan |
February 6 |
| Ashgabat, Turkmenistan |
February 7 |
| Yerevan, Armenia |
February 7 |
| Tblisi, Georgia |
February 8 |
| Baku, Azerbaijan |
February 9 |
| Valetta, Malta |
February 10 |
| Vienna, Austria |
February 11 |
| Minsk, Belarus |
February 13 |
| Sofia, Bulgaria |
February 14 |
| Tel Aviv, Israel |
February 15 |
| Larnaca, Cyprus |
February 16 |
| Ramallah, Palestine |
February 17-19 |
| Amman, Jordan |
February 20 |
| Dubai, United Arab Emirates |
February 21 |
| Khartoum, Sudan |
February 22-23 |
| Addis Ababa, Ethiopia |
February 24-25 |
| Nairobi, Kenya |
February 26-27 |
| Maputo, Mozambique |
February 28 |
| Johannesburg, South africa |
March 1-2 |
| Cape Town, South Africa |
March 3 |
| Kampala, Uganda |
March 5-6 |
| Abuja, Nigeria |
March 7-8 |
| Lagos, Nigeria |
March 9-10 |
| Dakar, Senegal |
March 11-12 |
| Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire |
March 13-14 |
| Cairo, Egypt |
March 15-16 |
| Naples, Italy |
March 17-19 |
| Paris, France |
March 20-21 |
| Cologne, Germany |
March 22-23 |
| Oslo, Norway |
March 24 |
| Torshavn, Faroe Islands |
March 24-25 |
| Reykjavik, Iceland |
March 25 |
| Tucuman, Argentina |
March 27-28 |
| Berazategui, Argentina |
March 29 |
| Buenos Aires |
March 30-31 |
| Rosario, Argentina |
April 1-2 |
| Bogota, Colombia |
April 3-5 |
| Panama City, Panama |
April 6 |
| San Jose, Costa Rica |
April 7-8 |
| Guadalajara, Mexico |
April 9-10 |
| Monterrey, Mexico |
April 11-12 |
| Mexico City, Mexico |
April 13-15 |
| New York, USA |
April 16 |
| Miami, USA |
April 17 |
| Los Angeles, USA |
April 18-20 |
| Frankfurt, Germany |
April 22 |
| Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia |
April 23 |
| Beijing, China P.R |
April 25 |
| Shanghai, China P.R |
April 26 |
| Tokyo, Japan |
April 27-28 |
| Osaka, Japan |
April 29-30 |
| Vladivostok, Russia |
May 1 |
For all the latest sports news follow Betway Uganda on
Facebook,
Twitter,
Instagram and
Google+