Rwandan football referee Louis Hakizimana has called time on his refereeing career after 17 years of service in various local and international football competitions. The 2021/22 Peace Cup final between AS Kigali and APR, which the former eventually won through Rashid Kalisa’s first half goal, was the veterans last match as an international referee. After the match, a host of local referees joined the veteran and his compatriot Ambroise Hakizimana, who also announced his retirement recently, to celebrate their successful refereeing careers, with a banner that reads “You have been exemplary to us and we have learned a lot from you. Thank you” Rwanda’s most experienced referee of the time, Hakizimana has over the past 17 years handled big matches in various competitions including the CAF Champions League, the Confederation Cup, Africa Olympic Games qualifiers, Africa U-20 Cup of Nations and World Cup qualifiers and the senior AFCON finals, becoming the first Rwandan to operate the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) technology during tournament.
