Football governing body (Ferwafa) Secretary General Henry Muhire has reassured that Huye Stadium is ready to host Rwanda’s next fixtures ahead of the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) qualifiers. Amavubi host Benin on March 28 and Muhire revealed that the federation is working on applying for a new permit from the Confederation of African Football (CAF) to use the stadium in international competitive games since the one they had last year expired. Actually, when we requested to use the Huye Stadium for international games, we requested for CHAN. We lent the stadium to Sudan when they hosted Tanzania in the CHAN qualifiers. This time is another open window for us to request to play our AFCON qualifying home games in Huye,” Muhire told Times Sport in an interview. Muhire said they are confident that Amavubi will play their next home fixtures of AFCON qualifiers in Huye because APR and AS Kigali used the same venue during their CAF Champions League and Confederation Cup while Rwanda U23 were also allowed to use it during the AFCON U23 Qualifiers. “Last year, all the games we played in the Group were away. This is not any big issue; we just have to apply to CAF to play against Benin at Huye Stadium, he said. We just have to give recent photos of the stadium, videos, the certificate of the pitch, light and other features to CAF. We could not do that last year so we had to wait to send them now that the window for submission is open, he further explained. Rwanda FA shared the new developments following reports in the media that CAF has rejected Huye Stadium from being used during Amavubi’s impending 2023 AFCON qualifying home games due to the fact that it still falls short of criteria required to host international football competitions yet. However, Muhire urged the general public to ignore the news which he described as a ‘hoax’. It is just a hoax,” he said, adding, “CAF even sent all federations who want their stadiums to be approved to apply by a deadline of February 7. Our technicians travel to Huye Thursday and Friday to take videos and photos and we will attach it to the certificates we have from FIFA, then send them to CAF for approval. We are very confident we will play our home games at Huye Stadium Rwanda is hoping to make it to the 2023 AFCON slated for Cote D'Ivoire in January 2024. The country's only qualification to the tournament was in the 2004 edition in Tunisia. Amavubi are currently third in Group B with one point after two qualifying games. Having played 1-1 draw with Mozambique before losing 1-0 to African champions Senegal in Dakar, Carlos Alos Ferrer’s men seek their first win when they face Benin on March 28.
