Gasogi United football club chairman Charles Nkuriza Kakooza ‘KNC’ on Thursday said his team will pull out of the top flight league, citing unfair refereeing for the decision. Kakooza’s sudden statement came after his team had a goal controversially ruled out for offside during Thursday’s shock 1-0 defeat against Rayon Sports at Kigali Stadium. Kakooza was not able to attend the match at the stadium as he is serving an-eight match ban from the stadium due to misconduct and ‘wrongly’ accusing Kiyovu SC president Juvenal Mvukiyehe of ‘betting’. Kakooza, who watched the match on TV, insisted his team was robbed when the linesman disallowed Gasogi’s that came from Marc Nkubana’s stunning strike, saying that two of the club’s players were offside. The decision cost his team three points after losing 1-0 at the expense of resilient Rayon, a result that angered KNC prompting him to announce that Gasogi would withdraw from the top flight league campaign. “Effective today, we are withdrawing the team from the premier league. our players will continue training and we will keep paying their wages but we won’t participate in this league anymore,” Kakooza angrily told journalists after the match. “This shows that our football is full of mafias. You saw the match we played, the effort the team has put in but the referees were briefed. These guys [referees] are playing with emotions,” he added. Kakooza, who says the refereeing committee has an agenda against his team due to the fact that he has been criticising referees on many occasions, warned mediocre refereeing is ruining Rwandan football and urged Ferwafa President to end the farce and put the house on order or else, his reputation in football risks losing people’s trust. Refereeing has been at the centre of criticism since the top flight campaign started in October. Kakooza was earlier this week slapped with a four-match ban from the stadium and a Rwf 50 000 fine for the comments he made on centre referee Balthazar Ahishakiye during the match against Police FC in December. He, however, said the federation should not only focus on taking action against those who criticise refereeing in Rwandan football but also look at what makes people come up with such critics. Otherwise, he said, he will only invest in a team elsewhere but not in Rwanda if nothing changes. “I invest at least Rwf 300 million for my team every season but the referee never minds doing this [to us]? How can you keep investing in football?” he claimed. “It happened to Police FC, it happened to Gorilla FC, but for us we can’t let this happen. We are getting out [of the league],” he added. If he stands by his decision, Gasogi will pull out of the league sitting 11th with 16 points after 15 matches of the first leg.
