Rwandan Football slowly heading into tumult

ON October 22, the regime of Celestin Ntagungira Abegga will be making one year at the helm of the presidency of Rwanda Football Federation.With a year down the road, the current regime has in one or the other way tried to bring in place new regulations that have impacted the current state of football but on the other side, the radical decisions taken by the executive committee has left smoke fuming in different cracks of the football house.The previous regime which was led by Brig. Gen Jean Bosco Kazura was forced to resign because they had ‘failed’ in their mission to develop football, no matter what was achieved. But what has the civilian led style helped the country as we clock towards the end of one year.Different issues ranging from bans, same old chaos of local football, power struggles in clubs, hateful interests and incompetency in Ferwafa officials mars the current state of affairs of Rwandan football.After Rayon Sport returned back to their original base, Nyanza after 26 years, they started off to a worst performance of the national league, losing three consecutive matches. The club is under the management of Nyanza District but its poor performance is also connected to the old club management authority, Imena who are reported to be behind the bad atmosphere growing in the club. It is reported that though they could not handle the increasing need of the club to earn better results in financial aspect, they were on the same time not contented with the club shifting back to Nyanza.Once Rayon Sport is unstable, then Rwandan football will not be stable at all. Some may disagree with this fact but this is how it is. Rayon Sport has the biggest fan base in the country and once this club is not stable and fans are not happy, the impact could also shake the state of affairs in the country.Ferwafa took one of the radical and unjustified decisions in the history of Rwandan football by banning veteran coach Jean Marie Ntagwabira from all football activities due to match fixing for a period of five years.On July 6, the former Rwandan international shocked football fraternity when he confessed in a press conference to bribing Rayon players to throw away a league match against SC Kiyovu in 2009, which he coached at the time.He admitted to using Issa Kayinamura to bribe a couple of players, whose identities remain a secret, to underperform. The encounter ended 3-2 in favour of Kiyovu.Kiyovu finished fourth that season but were promoted to third following the withdrawal from the league by Atraco that had finished second and Etincelles in third.He was first suspended for two months and later handed a lengthy ban together with his accomplice Kayinamura. The ban was proposed by the so-called disciplinary committee of Ferwafa and then given a blessing by the current executive committee.However, no rule in the legal statute was based on to ban Ntagwabira and his accomplice or found the two guilty of match fixing.If Ntagwabira takes his case to Fifa’s disciplinary committee which in the actual sense is the only body which can solve this case, he might end up being a victor and Ferwafa paying him damages for taking such decision.However, the root cause of such radical decisions (mentioned and unmentioned) stems from different high profile football lovers who usually play their games behind the curtains. They capitalized on Ntagwabira’s speech and used the weak and incompetent Ferwafa management to ban him from local football. I term this a weakness of the current regime because they can’t independently take decisions other than being influenced by some people for the sake of their nasty interests using hate speech and other tactics.Same match fixing issues were reported last year towards the end of the season but they were completely ignored.Don’t be surprised to find a Ferwafa official saying that I wish APR or Police can lose the league title this season such that SC Kiyovu and Rayon Sports can be victors. Where are we heading with this kind of management?Until we make our clubs self sufficient to fight for trophies, Ferwafa should not have a biased mind on determining who should win the league title between APR, Police, Mukura and the rest.Manage football affairs correctly and stop dictating who wins the title. This is a result of incompetent and spiteful heads which are running the country’s football.As the state of football affairs continues goes from good to worse, there are some other people who are interested in seeing football going into a crisis just because they think they are masters of Rwandan football.The same figures have gone a step further to influence the function of the current regime because they know that it is very weak, incompetent and unfocused and all they are after is riches. This is why you will find all these officials substituting each other on national team flights as head of delegations because that spot comes with hefty rewards. This leaves many to question whether the same figures were elected into office to always accompany national teams or work on different projects that would foster or financially improve the current state of football in the country.Rwanda’s football management needs competent administrators, innovative minds, focused and passionate youth who are ready to sacrifice for the need of their country’s football other than wasting the available resources in the name of building the country’s football.After Kazura, Ntagungira was believed to be capable of steering Rwandan football in the right direction in the next two years. The way fellow candidates expressed their desire to back him proved another fact that they believed in him to make an impact for the local football. But to many, he has let them down after he failed to meet their expectations.Abegga had promised to completely revamp Rwandan football deep from the grassroots to the senior level. His priorities were to get sponsors for both the national team and individual clubs, professionalize the national league, and enhance bi-lateral relations with other CAF and FIFA as well as creating transparency in the day to day operations of the federation.Others included developing women football, enforce different commissions in the federation to carry out different tasks assigned to them and play a big role in developing a strong program for mass football.Have any of these points been addressed? I leave room for your responses and comments.