Ferwafa non-committal on Amavubi friendlies

Rwanda Football Federation (Ferwafa) Chief Executive Officer Olivier Mulindahabi has hinted at the possibility of Amavubi not playing another friendly in 2014 contrary to what Amavubi Coach Stephen Constantine wants.

Thursday, November 20, 2014
Amavubi winger Djamal Mwiseneza in a friendly against Malawi. Amavubi Coach Stephen Constantine wants more friendlies to build a strong team for the 2016 Chan championship. (File)

Rwanda Football Federation (Ferwafa) Chief Executive Officer Olivier Mulindahabi has hinted at the possibility of Amavubi not playing another friendly in 2014 contrary to what Amavubi Coach Stephen Constantine wants.

Constantine wrote on his blog on Wednesday that if the team can have another international friendly before Christmas then it would go a long in helping to prepare the team for the 2016 Chan championship that will be held in Rwanda.

"We want to organise more friendlies to help the coach in preparing the team for Chan but at the moment it is hard getting a country to play a friendly with,” Mulindahabi said adding that such games also require a lot of money because they would have to incur all costs for the opposing teams.

The Ferwafa CEO added that countries have their programmes already set and even if the Football Federation sent a request to any country now, it would take some time for them to reply.

Although Constantine said he is aware of the challenges of organising the friendlies, he said that is the only way he will be able to identify and groom his players for Chan.

"I am of course fully aware of the challenges for both the government and the FA to organise these games, it is a huge task but also necessary to build a formidable team for such an elite continental tournament,” said the Briton.

Rwanda has so far played 6 international friendlies winning 4, drawing 1 and losing 1 compared to the previous two years where 17 games were played and only one game was won.