Amavubi coach Vincent Mashami has urged officials in the National Football Federation (FERWAFA) to organize friendly matches for the national football team which is preparing for the Total African Nations Championship (CHAN).

The three-week tournament will take place in Cameroon from January 16 to February 7, 2021.

Mashami believes friendly matches will help the coaching staff gauge the team’s preparedness by testing the players’ fitness levels and also different tactical formations.

"Friendly matches are very important and will help us prepare better for the tournament. We are working on different tactical formations and we plan to test these in the friendly matches,” Mashami said.

Amavubi players are currently in residential at Golden Tulip Nyamata since Thursday.

Mashami named a provisional squad of 31 players who include; eleven from APR FC, four came from Rayon Sports, five were called up from AS Kigali, Police FC has six, Kiyovu has three while Musanze FC and Gasogi United has one each.

Amavubi is in Group C with Morocco, Uganda, and Togo and the national side will start their group campaign against Uganda before champions Morocco and will wrap their group matches against debutants Togo.

Rwanda made it to the continental tournament’s three consecutive editions.

Since the inception of CHAN in 2009, Rwanda has only missed the inaugural edition and the 2014 tournament, making its debut in 2011 before hosting the 2016 showpiece and qualifying for the 6th edition.

However, the country’s best performance in the tournament is the quarterfinals in 2016. Amavubi bowed out from the group stage at 2011 and 2018 editions.