Someone needs to explain Amavubi state

A record of five permanent coaches and two on an interim basis in less than seven years for Rwanda’s national football team, Amavubi Stars, says more than any human being can be able to explain as far as where the team’s real problem lies. After the infamous departure of Ratomir Dujkovic, who led Rwanda to her first ever appearance at the Africa Cup of Nations finals tournament in 2004, the team has not been given a real crack at a chance to develop steadily. Since that period when Rwanda’s football seemed to be at its ‘peak’ and everyone was jumping up and down with genuine excitement, things started going off course with the arrival of Sweden’s Roger Palmgren, Ratomir’s immediate successor. Like Palmgren, all the other four men, who came after him on permanent deals, signed two-year contracts, two worked out theirs, one jumped ship after only five months in charge while the other has just left with nine months still to run on his. The Swede didn’t have much luck with results but his team had that bullish quality about it, but failure to qualify for the subsequent Nations Cup finals cost him a contract renewal, his heir, the German Michael Nees was a nonstarter, yet he ran out his contract. When Josip Kuze came in, we all thought the team had finally got the man to bring the best out of available resources, mediocre they maybe, but he didn’t last long, jumping ship to sign for a Japanese club after only five months in charge. Raoul Shungu took over briefly on an interim role as the search for a permanent choice was underway, shortly Branko Tucak jetted in unannounced, signed a two-year deal, laid bare his plans in his maiden, [and the last one I remember] press conference . Boring as he was and acted, he had a mixed bag of results but at the end of his tenure, he had done pretty little or nothing to convince his bosses he warranted a new deal, he left as he arrived, an unnoticed. Eric Nshimiyimana took over briefly, and to be quite honest, he should be fondly proud of his record, which saw him take the team to the final of the regional Cecafa senior challenge cup in Nairobi, eventually losing to the Uganda Cranes. I remember writing an article, putting down Nshimiyimana’s case, and others like Jean Marie Ntagwabira and Baptiste Kayirange that they should be given a crack at the top job, after all, being ‘home boys’ won’t cost a fortune like their foreign ‘big’ brothers. But in the aftermath of Tucak’s departure, everyone was talking about starting afresh, building a new team based on the home based young players, who we all agree are not the best out there, but they aren’t the worst. So, the arrival of Sellas Tetteh, who was fresh from guiding his native Ghana to the 2009 Fifa U20 World Cup title after overcoming the game’s most talented football nation, Brazil. He had also won the African championship held in Kigali at the start of the year. Little did he know that what was to happen one year down the road, would damage his reputation, probably forever—if he had waited to be sacked as signs were starting to show from the ‘inside corridors’, he would be a dupe but by resigning, he at least saved what was remaining of his already injured status. After all that, here lays the question everyone, apart from those in charge of football in the country, wants to have an answer to, what is Amavubi’s real problem? Is it the coaches, the players, the fans, the people running it, who in this case is the national football federation [Ferwafa] or the government [sports ministry]? Every time the team fails to perform as expected, the coach suffers and what do we gain from changing coaches with an overwhelming frequency while other factors remain constant? Public debatesFootball in this country has stagnated for some years now and the fans have become frustrated by the fact that no one from Ferwafa seems to take responsibility of the situation. I fear to call it a crisis, because, it hasn’t come to that, just yet. But for how long can the current status quo can be allowed to persist! A section of fans and other observers put the blame squarely on the shoulders of Ferwafa’s top administrator Brig. Gen. Jean Bosco Kazura. The most radical ones say the federation’s Chief Executive Officer Jules Kalisa is the real problem since he has been running Ferwafa’s day-to-day activities, first as assistant secretary general before he took over as full SG [now CEO] since the turn of the decade under the former administration, headed by Lt. Gen. Ceaser Kayizari. We all agree that the country lacks real quality talents but even the few that we have, with long term planning, patience and real football people running the game with full commitment, starting with the current U17 setup, I don’t see how more Rwandans will continue distancing themselves from their own team as many are doing at the moment. But before that, someone needs to come out and tell the fans why things are the way they are, and if possible set up public debates on every available platform to discuss the way forward for a better and stronger national team. nku78@yahoo.com