Mukura VS withdraw from AS Kigali pre-season tourney

Fixtures Sept 8AS Kigali vs AS Vita (Kigali Regional Stadium, 15:30)Rayon Sports vs Police FC (Kigali Regional Stadium, 18:00) Sept 9APR FC vs Dauphin Noir (Kigali Regional Stadium, 15:30)Sanga Balende vs SC Kiyovu (Kigali Regional Stadium, 18:00) Sept 11AS Kigali vs Dauphin Noir (Kigali Regional Stadium, 15:30)Sanga Balende vs Rayon Sports (Umuganda Stadium, 15:30)SC Kiyovu vs Police FC (Mumena Stadium, 15:30)AS Vita vs APR FC (Kigali Regional Stadium, 18:00) Sept 13AS Vita vs Dauphin Noir (Umuganda Stadium, 15:30)Police FC vs Sanga Balende (Kicukiro Stadium, 15.30)APR FC vs AS Kigali (Kigali Regional Stadium, 15.30)SC Kiyovu vs Rayon Sports FC (Kigali Regional Stadium, 18.00) *** Group A: AS Kigali, APR FC, Dauphin Noir and AS VitaGroup B: Rayon Sports, SC Kiyovu, Sanga Balende and Police FC Mukura Victory Sports have withdrawn from the inaugural AS Kigali pre-season football tournament. The club officials said the decision to pull out was reached after organisers reneged on their earlier promise to provide accommodation for the club. “We agreed with AS Kigali that they will give us Rwf3m for accommodation but on Tuesday they wrote to us saying that there’s no money and they were not ready to accommodate our team, so we decided to withdraw from the tourney,” Mukura president, Olivier Nzeyimana, told Times Sport. “They (Mukura) have told us that they are not competing in the tourney and we replaced them with SC Kiyovu,” AS Kigali Team Manager, Joseph Nshimiye said. Meanwhile, the pre-season tournament, which was scheduled to kick off on Tuesday, was postponed to Thursday. Nshimiye said the change was done to accommodate requests from DR Congo teams whose players were on national duty. The tournament is estimated to cost Rwf100 million. “AS Vita, Sanga Balende and Dauphin Noir asked us to postpone the tourney for at least two days as some of their players were away with the national team,” Nshimiye said. On top of the three clubs from DR Congo, other clubs taking part include champions APR FC, Peace Cup holders, Rayon Sports, SC Kiyovu, AS Kigali and Police FC. Hosts AS Kigali will open their campaign against AS Vita before Rayon Sports take on Police FC. The semi-finals will be played on September 15 at Kigali Regional Stadium. Group matches will be played at Kigali Regional Stadium, Umuganda Stadium, Kicukiro and Mumena, while the third place playoff and final will be played on September 18 at Amahoro Stadium. editorial@newtimes.co.rw