Ferwafa need to professionalise local league

Rwanda football might have come a long way, but the country still has a long way to catch up with continental football giants like Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana and Algeria among others. Despite the fact that the country is endowed with talented players, football is yet to attain full professionalism. The results is that only a few clubs are capable of affording adequate training facilities, let alone providing players with decent social conditions. It is always difficult to professionalise football in countries which lack the requisite economic and financial means. In Rwanda, most clubs are cash-strapped and cannot afford even the minimum of players’ needs. In-fact, most local clubs are operating on a shoestring budget even after the Rwanda Football Federation landed Rwf171.2m sponsorship into the 2013/14 Turbo King Football League season from Bralirwa. Last season, when Primus injected Rwf160m, clubs shared Rwf75m to cater for their expenses on match days, but with a further Rwf25m increment, each club will get Rwf6.4m this season, which is still far short from what is required to cover their operations’ costOn a minimum, each top flight league team needs more than Rwf100m annually to at least operate smoothly, a sum which will cover players, coaches and official’s salaries, transport, accommodation and meals as well as a package for transfer market. Clubs that at least perform best in the country, tend to be those with some financial wherewithal, such as APR, Police, Rayon Sports and AS Kigali. They at least offer attractive conditions (salaries and match bonuses). They wield the means to lure top players from other regions, clubs and neighbouring countries though the foreign influx has been reduced. This is why there is a real need to bring about a little bit of level playground for all teams to compete favourably and this would definitely be an answer to improving the quality and standard of our league. It is fair to say that a Rwanda Premier League, independent of Ferwafa is needed to manage the national football league and find means of attracting sponsors to support our league in a shortest span possible. The only way financial status of the league can be improved is when a Rwanda Premier League Committee is installed so as to improve and ensure efficiency in running our league. This move can help our clubs to bootstrap themselves to equality in the same way other continental football club powerhouses have done. Local football clubs are lagging behind in marketing their matches and apart from Rayon Sports, the rest have not been able to sell replica jerseys to their supporters. Football is a business and must be attractive in all facets as it needs to be sold as a package and this is why Rwanda Premier League Committee should come in to take football to another level. In the 80s and the best part of the 1990s, Uganda’s national football league, the Super League was where every footballer wanted to show his skills before finally heading off to places like Oman and Asia for a hefty retirement package. Uganda’s clubs; SC Villa, KCC and Express were competing on the continent with fair success. Villa reached two successive continental finals in 1991 and 1992. Several former players made their mark in the then popular Super league; James Kayimba, Manfred Kizito and Said Abedi Makasi (now at Espoir FC) first made their names in the Ugandan league. Abedi featured for the Ugandan big three (Sc Villa, KCC and Express) before his Rayon Sports stop-over as he was heading to Europe. Other regional teams like Kenya Breweries (Tusker), AFC Leopards, Gor Mahia (Africa Winners Cup champions-1987), Simba and Young Africans (Yanga) completed the big ones’ list in East Africa. However, all that changed mainly due to the advent of digital television that brought with it the Premiership craze. One of the reasons that the regional football leagues have fallen on hard times is the crowd violence that has turned away numerous fans from the stadiums. The region has seen a massive drop in attendances with only as few as 100 fans even less attending matches in the 30,000-seater national stadiums across the East African region. One main factor to blame is the growing popularity of foreign leagues relayed via satellite. The popularity of the English premiership, French, Bundesliga, Italian and Spanish leagues has affected the interest in local football and is likely to bury the game of football. However, Rwanda’s football seems to be sailing astray of some of the troubles that have faced its neighbours. Though there is the English league storm that has covered the whole country, Rwandans should take pride in the fact that national football league is still a hot topic on the streets across the country. Teams still have fans following them for their up country engagements and though attendance figures show a different picture for the so called small clubs, there is hope for the big ones. When Rayon takes on APR, Police takes on Rayon Sports; SC Kiyovu against Rayon Sports, the matches can be the talk of town for weeks. The attendance in such games can’t be disappointing. Amahoro can fill to its capacity which isn’t the case in other regional countries save for Tanzania when Yanga take on Simba. The national league has in the past attracted some of the region’s best players and coaches. The league has attracted budding worldwide talents from Uganda, Kenya, DR Congo, Haiti and Brazil and many others who have all traded their skills in the Rwandan football league, mainly with APR. Being able to attract regional stars weighs tones or else the urge to improve our football, Ferwafa should professionalise the league in order for all stakeholders to cash in on the benefits. Creating a company to run the league should be looked into. The running of the national league should be separated from other factions of the larger than life clones at the Fifa backed national football federation. Ferwafa should use their good reputation in Fifa to brand the league in order to have a regional appeal. This will help the local league to draw sponsors, attract more crowds and improve competition among the clubs, thus bringing a positive impact on our national team performance too.