This week, the sports scene featured in the news for the wrong reasons as it emerged a senior official with Rwanda’s volleyball federation had been arrested over forgery two days after the country’s women volleyball team was disqualified from a Confederation of African Volleyball tournament that Rwanda was hosting. Jean de Dieu Bagirishya, the Second Vice President of Rwanda Volleyball Federation in charge of Operations, was arrested following an investigation in relation with the suspension of the national volleyball team from CAVB tournament. The incident involved allegations that Rwanda fielded ineligible players in the Confederation of African Volleyball tournament women’s tourney. While investigations are underway on the issue to understand the truth, it is revealing of the challenges in the sport sector among a number of federations. Any effort to field ineligible players reveals challenges in identifying, nurturing, developing and retaining sport talents from grass roots level. The allegations are a tell-tale sign of searching for quick fix measures to win trophies as opposed to doing the hard job of developing local talent. In other instances, federations have sought out Rwandans living in the diaspora who hold dual nationality to represent the country in international tournaments. Across the country, there is numerous sports talent across disciplines with young enthusiastic children eager for a place on the respective teams. In recent years, avenues to develop local talent have become fewer. Football pitches common within cities across the country where young ones played for hours have since been replaced by ‘more attractive’ commercial developments. The inter-school competitions that previously served to showcase and refine sports talents across the country are no more too. While there are several academies that have been set up courtesy of partnerships such as PSG, they are yet to prove capable of taking on young talent. Sports federations can do more to support emerging talent going forward by replacing the quick fixes to win trophies with long term strategies that may not deliver wins today but consistent quality performance in coming years.
