Devout of Africa - Bobby Williamson on life managing Uganda

Bobby Williamson has found managing Uganda a humbling experience in the face of extremely difficult personal circumstances, reports Andrew Smith

BOBBY WILLIAMSON'S contempt for the rumour-mongering sometimes passed off as news gathering can only have been cemented following reports last week he had resigned as Uganda coach. These surfaced in the West African nation's media because Williamson broke off from preparations for the country's decisive World Cup qualifier to fly back to Scotland. He did so only a matter of days after he had returned from a short break in his homeland. He did so to attend the funeral of his father Thomas.

As his father was losing a five-year battle with cancer, Williamson's fortitude in committing to a post in an unknown continent 4,300 miles away deserves to be appreciated in print. Whatever the pain of his loss, and the disturbing dislocation and detachment from his family at such a numbing time, the 47-year-old considers his professional duties may have provided him a modicum of succour.

"It has been difficult but there isn't much I could do in the circumstances," he says. "I'm only relieved I managed to get back and see dad last week. But when I left the hospice it was pretty tough knowing it was the last time I would see him alive, and he couldn't know that.

"My sister Shona really took on the burden, looking after him for so long and never complaining, with brilliant help from her husband and brother. The grief never leaves you. I've had a lot of time here when I haven't been doing much and so been alone with my thoughts. That has been difficult, so it's been good to have the players in camp and training twice a day to keep my mind occupied."

The respect he affords his family is extended to the nation whose football development and evaporating World Cup prospects he has been entrusted with. It is tempting to view the gruff Glaswegian's pitching up in a culturally alien land in quaint or amusing terms. The build-up to Uganda's home meeting with Group 3 leaders Benin today has seen their opponents forced to deny that they employed ju-ju, or witchcraft, to secure a 4-1 win over the Ugandans last June, when they were under the charge of Hearts coach Csaba Lazlo.

Williamson, though, has embraced the unfamiliar rather than lamented it. It takes him two hours to drive through hair-raising traffic from his Kampala hotel to training sessions. But the fact that "there doesn't seem to be any highway code and people pull out in front of you all the time" has, he says, "been brilliant for me because I'm an erratic driver at the best of times."

He describes the people he is working among as "hard working", "grateful for what little they have", and "God-fearing", the latter accounted for by the fact that 84% of the population are Christian. "The players pray before and after every training session and that has been something I've found humbling," he says.

Uganda have barely a prayer of reaching the second qualifying phase following a 3-1 defeat away to previously pointless Niger in Williamson's first game in charge. The necessity for him to flit back and forth from Scotland since that encounter last month has prevented him settling in to a daily routine. Only on Thursday did he properly sit down and eat with his squad. And even if cautious over sampling the local cuisine, he recognises its nutritional value.

"I couldn't even begin to pronounce the popular dishes, but I just judge whether I try them out on how they look. An awful lot grows here. There are three type of bananas, all sorts of beans and potatoes, and people look healthy. Very few of them are fat, so that can only be good for me," says the previously rotund Williamson.

As a coach, the former Kilmarnock, Hibernian, Plymouth and Chester manager was not to everyone's tastes in success-starved Uganda. They have never qualified for a World Cup finals and last appeared in the latter stages of the African Cup of Nations 30 years ago. By the time Lazlo had been enticed to Tynecastle in August, Ugandans were convinced he had instilled in the national team the necessary mindset that would secure the two victories for them to go forward from Group 3. They did not view an unemployed Scot as a fitting replacement. Their fears that he could not maintain the momentum built up by the Hungarian were confirmed when their team crumbled in depressing fashion in Niger after surrendering a 1-0 advantage gained by Hearts midfielder David Obua, an injury absentee this week. The performance led Lazlo to slam his successor for destroying his inheritance. Little attention was paid to the fact that Uganda have not won an away match in eight years.

Some in the Kampala media offer a different slant on how Williamson – referred to often in Uganda as Robert – has handled himself in his African adventure. Lazlo adopted a dictatorial stance and would not countenance working with local coaches or local players. There has been appreciation for Williamson's attempts to make an impression on football in the country from the grassroots up, and the willingness to involve himself with Ugandan-based coaches and players for the sake of the country's long-term, rather than his personal, gain.

"My way isn't right and Csaba's way isn't wrong; they are only different," he says. "I believe I have coaching talents worth sharing and hope I can use these to improve the game throughout the country and become a more rounded individual for the experience. Ultimately, results will determine whether that happens. Just as with Hibs, and Chester, I have taken a job at hardly an easy time. People can't always see the difficulties you face, can't see that things might not work out because of factors outwith your control. But all I can do is give my all to the job, attempt to learn as much as I can to minimise mistakes, and hope that is good enough."

His best is unlikely to be good enough today. Angola, on the same points mark as Uganda with a better goal difference than their rivals for the runners-up spot, are fully expected to triumph at home to Niger. Even if this is by the slenderest margin, Uganda would have to win 5-0 for qualifying for South Africa to remain a possibility.

Williamson maintains a negative outcome would not affect his contract situation. He insists his deal with the Ugandan FA did not contain a release clause in the event of him failing to beat Niger and Benin, as has been reported. If the World Cup ends now for the country, it won't do much for his popularity in Kampala but, in that regard, he believes football is the same globally.

"Anyone who follows the game here knows who I am if they see me on the street. It isn't as if there are many Mzungus, what they call white people," he says. "But, just as at home, it is only the supportive who will approach you. The ones that want to dig you up will go on to papers or phone-ins. And I don't read them, watch television or listen to radio. In my spare time, I only read books."

There is an undeniable sense that the latest chapter in Williamson's career has exile as its theme. On losing his job at Plymouth in 2005, he had to wait close to two years before taking over at Colchester, a position he held for only 10 months before enduring another year away from the game.

As long as he is out in Africa, Williamson will be using the experience to enrich his life, as much as his career.