Last week, the electoral commission of Rwanda’s football governing body (Ferwafa) approved former referee Louis Rurangirwa and Mukura Victory Sports president Olivier Nizeyimana as the only candidates contesting for the football federation’s top seat. Both have consistently contributed to the development of Rwandan football in different aspects, from refereeing to football leadership and management. Elections are due June 27. Times Sport looks at the profiles of the two men who want to replace Brig. Gen (rtd) Jean-Damascene Sekamana – who resigned in April – and lead Ferwafa for the next four years. Louis Rurangirwa Rurangirwa’s name is not quite new in Rwanda football, having served in different football departments from a top referee from the local to the international scene and then to a club president and founder of Rugende Women’s football club. The 47-year-old started out as a coach at the secondary school level in 1998 until 2001 when he launched his refereeing career, starting from the second division where he spent three years before he was promoted to the top flight in 2005. Rurangirwa became an international referee in 2009, officiating at different international competitions, including AFCON Qualifiers, CAF Champions League, Confederations Cups, as well as CECAFA Challenge. In 2011, Rurangirwa was forced to retire from refereeing due to an injury and started a new experience in sports leadership. He would later be elected president of Rwanda Athletics Federation for a period of four years. And, it was when his term at RAF expired in 2015 that he started to work on his project to establish Rugende Women Football Club. The club has been running since 2016, featuring in the second division. This is the second time Rurangirwa has sought to lead Ferwafa, having first stood for the top FA job back in 2018 only to lose to the man he’s now seeking to replace. But it seems he is always confident that his last laugh will one day come when he finally assumes the Ferwafa office is far from over. Olivier Nizeyimana A prominent businessman, Nizeyimana is the owner of transport firm Volcano Express as well as the country representative for carmaker Hyundai. As Mukura VS president, Nizeyimana managed to bring relative stability to the Huye District-backed club where he made the best out of his business connections to secure sponsorships that helped the club remain financially stable for years. Under his leadership Mukura reached the playoffs round of the CAF Confederations Cup in the 2018/ 2019 season– the first time they had progressed to that level. He is known to be a no-nonsense football boss who does not hesitate to fire managers for underperformance. Nizeyimana is a passionate football fan and a big supporter of Spanish side FC Barcelona.
