Rayon Sports petition Ferwafa over Sina saga

Rayon Sports have petitioned the Rwanda football governing body, Ferwafa over striker Jerome Sina whom they 'bought' from Police FC for a reported Rwf 11m, but was later claimed by another club.

Saturday, October 25, 2014

Rayon Sports have petitioned the Rwanda football governing body, Ferwafa over striker Jerome Sina whom they ‘bought’ from Police FC for a reported Rwf 11m, but was later claimed by another club.

Sina Jerome, left, celebrates after scoring for Police against Vital'O in this year's Cecafa Kagame Cup. (Timothy Kisambira)

Sina’s transfer to Rayon has been blocked by DR Congo side DC Virunga, who claim they are the rightful owners of the player whom they say had been loaned to Police.

Police FC terminated Sina’s contract that was still running for another year and sold him to Rayon Sports after he had been found to be a foreigner; yet the law enforcers club has a policy of using only Rwandan players.

However, when buying the player’s contract, the Nyanza-based side didn’t verify that Sina still had a contract with DC Virunga and was playing for Police on loan.

Virunga loaned the former Amavabi forward to Police for one season and he featured for the club in the League, Peace Cup as well as the Cecafa Kagame Club Championship last season.

The loan deal was extended in September for another year.

Now Rayon Sports have asked Ferwafa to intervene so that they get a refund of their money from Police, according to the club secretary general, Aimé Ndayisabye.

He said: "After what has happened, we are not interested in signing him because it will bring confusion to our team, which is doing well; but we need to get our money back and that’s why we have petition Ferwafa to help us.”

However, Police are adamant, claiming they never breached any procedure.

"We paid Virunga the loan fee and whatever we did afterwards was in the right channels. We even paid Sina Rfw 3m from the money Rayon Sports paid for him, but let’s wait and see comes out of their (Rayon Sports) petition,” Police FC spokesperson Jean de Dieu Mayira told Sunday Sport.

If no conclusion to the saga is reached, Sina could risk missing the first half of the season.

Following Ferwafa’s contentious decision to drop naturalized players who attained Rwandan citizenship ‘illegally’, Police FC released four players including Sina, Moussa Habimana, Moussa Mutuyimana, Peter ‘Kagabo’ Otema and Fredrick Ndaka.

Rayon Sports have a perfect record after two rounds of matches and will play their third league game against Musanze today at Kigali Regional Stadium.