The Minister for Sports, Aurore Mimosa Munyangaju has said that a number of teams in the Rwanda football premier league are being investigated for allegedly giving fake Covid-19 documents. Minister Mimosa was speaking during a post-cabinet press conference on Wednesday, December 16. She explained that the Ministry in partnership with health authorities conducted an inspection which among others, discovered that some top-flight teams were issuing fake Covid-19 certificates for their players. One of the conditions that the Sports Ministry had directed for mass sports to resume was testing of players and staff before every match. “It is unfortunate that we had cases where some teams presented fake documents, while in other cases, teams went on to play before they could get their results back,” she said. In addition, “Investigation regarding this issue is underway and it has been taken over by the authorities with this mandate.” In reference to the recently suspended Rwanda Premier league, Mimosa noted that adherence to Covid-19 preventive guidelines were not followed as some teams failed to meet the basic safety requirements. “The main reason the Rwanda Premier League was suspended is because of failure to adhere to the guidelines. Players were moving in and out of team camps, and clubs did not carry out Covid-19 tests before matches as required.” In addition, she said, “We had also requested all the teams to present health records of their members on a regular basis, but they failed.” Data from the Ministry of Sports indicates that so far, more than 5 top flight teams have registered Covid-19 positive cases amongst their members. The teams, according to Minister Mimosa, include AS Kigali, APR FC, Amagaju, Rutsiro FC. “The league was not suspended because of reported Covid-19 cases, it is because the clubs and players failed to comply with the preventive protocols,” she asserted. Mimosa said that the current decision to suspend the Rwanda Premier League will be withdrawn after all the teams comply with fresh guidelines that were recently given to them. When pressed for details she said, “Currently teams have been requested to present new strategies to fight the laxity that has previously been realized. When the teams present these reports, we will also be ready to respond back.” The Ministry of Sports suspended the 2020/2021 Rwanda Premier League last week on December 11. The news followed only three match days of the new season which started on December 4
