Ferwafa, nine other sports bodies lose govt support

There will be no New Year’s cheer for the country’s football governing body, Ferwafa, and nine other sports federations after they failed to get legal status before 2014 and subsequently lost financial and moral support from government.The federations in question failed to beat the December 31, 2013 deadline to get legal status and, according to officials, they will henceforth not receive any support from the government and the National Olympic Committee (RNOC) until they acquire legal status.Although these sports institutions have been operating normally for years without statutes business might no longer be as usual effective today, officials said.The other federations to be affected include Boxing, Ascoki, Badminton, Tennis, Rugby, Cricket, Athletics, Table Tennis, and Sports Scolaire.There are about 24 sports federations and five associations in the country.Speaking during an exclusive interview with Times Sport on Monday, the Minister for Sports and Culture, Protais Mitali, said: “We are happy there are some federations that legalised their status; we can now operate under the right structures, with clarity of the rights and obligations of each party.”“For those that have not yet legalised their existence, they will no longer receive any form of assistance from neither the ministry nor the National Olympic Committee,” the minister insisted.The federations/associations that have attained legal status include; Kung-fu, Karate, Volleyball, Basketball, Cycling (provisional), National Paralympics Committee, Association Rwandaise des Médecins de Sports and Chess.The decision to phase out assistance to non-compliant federations and associations was taken in March 2012, after a meeting between officials from the Ministry of Sports and Culture, and the NOC, the umbrella body for national sports institutions in Gashora, Bugesera. “We will no long deal with any federations that have not solved the issue of their legal statutes, we have been very clear and lenient for a long time, so no one should claim that they have been taken by surprise,” the minister said.The RNOC vice chairperson Elie Manirarora said: “Any federation that does not respect the rules that govern RNOC will never receive any sponsorship from us anymore; we have given them enough time to sort out this problem, we will now work with those that are ready to work under the stipulated guidelines.”“It is not difficult, it is just that the federations seem not to taking this matter seriously,” he added.Ferwafa is in the middle of an election campaign expected to usher in a new leadership team come January 5. And it appears various candidates have picked up the legal status matter as a major campaign issue, promising to fix the problem upon election.The incumbent, Celestin “Abega’ Ntagungira told The New Times yesterday that he was aware of the urgent need to register the federation and for it to function as a legal entity and would make it a top priority once elected back into office.Ntagungira, whose term in office officially ended yesterday, took over after the surprise resignation of the former team two years ago. Ferwafa leadership normally serves for a four-year renewable term.It was not immediately clear by press time whether some of the affected federations had funds to run day-to-day operations since we are already in the middle of the 2013/14 fiscal year.