Editorial: FERWAFA-Rayon Sports row not good for the game
Saturday, February 08, 2020
Rayon Sports players celebrate after thumping Marines 6-1 in a league match at Kigali Stadium on Wednesday, November 6, 2019.

Rayon Sports is by far the most popular club in the country. Although it identifies itself mostly with its ancestral home in the Southern Province, Nyanza to be more specific, its following is countrywide.

Its fans are the noisiest and the most excitable just as they are the best customers for drinking joints near the stadium when they win important matches. It is that popularity that makes its leaders think they have the leverage to dictate terms in the football fraternity.

Right now Rayon Sports, as it is popularly known, is locked in an arm-wrestling match with the football regulators, FERWAFA. The misunderstanding stems from the fact that Rayon Sports has been slapped with several punishments for pulling out of the Heroes Cup at the last minute.

It was a flexing of muscles which Rayon Sports lost in the end, now they are rubble-rousing their fans calling on FERWAFA leadership to resign. This is some kind of incitement—simply because things did not go your way does not mean it is the end of the world.

Rayon leadership should utilize its sizable clout in a more peaceful and productive manner, not sowing seeds of discord as if it is above reproach. The kind of language its leaders are using is dangerous.

If they feel they were treated unfairly, there is always the option of going to court, but disturbing a hornets’ nest should be their last option. After all, it is just a game—it is not the end of the world.