KAMPALA, Dec. 30 -- 2018 has been a good year to Uganda as the east African country continued to make major strides in football, ranking number one in the east and central African region, according to the world football governing body, Federation of International Football Association.

The major highlight was the qualification for the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations and the 2019 Under 17 Africa Cup of Nations.

At club level, the country's premier league side KCCA FC qualified for the group stage of the lucrative Confederation of African Football (CAF) Champions League. This was the first time in the country's history.

This year also, CAF selected Uganda to host the 2020 Africa Beach Football Championship.

Moses Magogo, the president of the Federation of Uganda Football Associations (FUFA) told Xinhua in a recent interview that the country is striving to become one of the best footballing nations in Africa.

"We have maintained to center on development, promotion and protection of our game. I think it is a project now. It is right now starting to bear fruits," said Magogo.

"We started by setting the target to break the 39-year old AFCON qualification jinx and broke it when we played at the 2017 event. Now we have also qualified for the 2019 AFCON. Our approach has been in four areas; re-organize the institution (FUFA) to have strong governance principles, very strong secretariat in terms of staffing and very good policies," Magogo added.

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