Black Stars to play Cranes

The Ugandan football governing body, Fufa, is planning to have three build up matches for the Cranes with West African nations before they play Nigeria's Super Eagles.

The Cranes are scheduled to play Nigeria next March in an African Nations Cup encounter.

Federation media committee boss Rogers Mulindwa yesterday told Daily Monitor that plans had been finalised to send official requests to play Ghana's Black Stars, Mali and Algeria's Desert Foxes.

"We need to have a better test of the West Africans before playing Nigeria. As I talk to you now, the letters might be on their way to those countries," said Mulindwa.

He said that the dates of the build up matches will be decided after Cranes' participation in the Cecafa Challenge Cup slated for Nov. 18 to December 2.

Laszlo Csaba's Cranes will also be able to get build up matches with United Arab Emirates (UAE), Sudan and Tanzania before playing the Nigerians who are ranked first in Africa and number 11 on the Fifa rankings.

The Nigerians are on top of Group 3 of the qualifiers on 6 points, while the Cranes are second with four points from two games. The Cranes opened their Nations Cup account with a 3-0 win over Lesotho, before drawing 0-0 with Niger.