By 
Uganda Cranes will have more than Libya to contend with when they step onto the pitch at Hoima City Stadium on Tuesday night.
With Mandela National Stadium under renovation ahead of AFCON 2027, They will also be playing for the beginning of what could be “new home” for next few months atleast.
The Libya encounter will be the Uganda senior men’s national team’s first international fixture at the Hoima venue, giving the city an opportunity to establish itself as another important base for the Cranes.
And captain Denis Onyango already has a clear ambition for what that home should become.
“First game in Hoima for the national team. But we just want to make it a fortress and try and get the results that everyone expects us to get,” Onyango said.
That objective gives Tuesday’s match significance beyond the immediate result. Hoima is being given its first opportunity to create the atmosphere and identity that could eventually make it a regular destination for Uganda’s biggest football fixtures.
For the Cranes, however, the timing presents a challenge. Uganda return home after opening their AFCON 2027 campaign with a 1-1 draw against Tunisia in Tunis. The team then had to make the journey back to Uganda with little time to recover.
Head coach Paul Put admitted that the demanding schedule had taken its toll on his players.
“We had a long travel to go to Tunisia, play in Tunisia in only two days preparation, then came back,” Put said. “We delayed, so the players were very tired yesterday. Today we are going to see on training how the reaction is, and then we have to be ready for the game tomorrow.”
The coach’s comments underline the physical challenge facing Uganda, but they also place greater importance on the home support awaiting the team in Hoima.
The Cranes will need to turn the energy around the new venue into intensity on the pitch, particularly against a Libya side facing the same demands of international travel.
Onyango acknowledged the difficulties but refused to use them as an excuse.
“Of course, as the coach said, a little bit of hiccups here and there in terms of our travelling, but the opposition as well also face the same challenge,” he said. “So it can never be an excuse. We just need to play the game, because at the end of the day we have to play the game.”
That attitude will be important as Uganda continue to reshape their squad. Put has brought new players into the setup, but the Belgian coach knows that building a cohesive team cannot happen overnight. Some of the new additions have had only a couple of days with the national team.
“First of all, we have to be patient with the new players, because they are only here for two days,” Put said. “So integration is always important. Integration always takes time.”
The Libya fixture therefore becomes another opportunity for Put to assess his options and determine which of the new faces can genuinely strengthen the team ahead of AFCON next year to be co-hosted by Kenya,Tanzania and Uganda.
That search for improvement is partly rooted in Uganda’s experience at the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco.
Put was frank about the lessons from that tournament, where Uganda struggled when confronted by some of the continent’s stronger sides.
“We have to be honest. We played AFCON. I think before AFCON, we did it very well, the team. We did good results in the World Cup, also for our qualification,” he said.
“But in AFCON, we had to be realistic. And if we played the big teams, we had it difficult.”
The coach says the response has been to reinforce the squad, but the responsibility now rests with the players to demonstrate that they can raise Uganda’s level.
“We have been trying to reinforce the team. And now it’s also on them to prove that they really can reinforce the team,” Put added.
That makes the Hoima occasion particularly interesting. While the stadium is trying to establish itself as a new home for the Cranes, Put is simultaneously trying to establish a squad capable of competing at a higher level.
Uganda’s automatic qualification for AFCON 2027 as co-hosts means the current qualifying campaign is also serving as preparation for next year’s tournament. The matches against Tunisia and Libya, followed by the planned friendlies against DR Congo, give Put valuable opportunities to test players and combinations before the continental finals.
Hoima can therefore become part of that preparation story.
A strong crowd and a positive performance against Libya would give the venue an ideal start. More importantly, regular national-team matches could help build a lasting relationship between the Cranes and supporters in western Uganda.
For Onyango, the ambition is already clear: turn the impressive new stadium into a place opponents will respect.
But fortresses are not created by names or architecture alone. They are built through performances, results, atmosphere and memories.
On Tuesday night, against Libya, Hoima gets its first chance to begin building all four.
