Following the threat by Pépinière to withdraw from the national league, Gicumbi FC has become the second team that has taken the same route in protest over the decision by football body FERWAFA to bar them from hosting their home matches in Gicumbi district.

Since the start of the season, the Gicumbi-based side have played their ‘home’ matches at Mumena Stadium in Nyamirambo, City of Kigali following recommendation by a FERWAFA ad hoc committee in charge of approving match venues that billed the Byumba ground inappropriate to host league matches.

Speaking to Times Sport on Tuesday in an exclusive interview, Gicumbi FC secretary general Antoine Dukuzumuremyi revealed that they will consider pulling out of the national league if FERWAFA does not visit their ground for further verification after the upgrades.

"We have given them until the first week of January to come and inspect the ground because we are incurring huge costs playing away all our matches,”

He added, "We never planned for such a budget, always playing away. Besides fans want to see their team play some matches at closer to home. They (FERWAFA) need to come and inspect our ground before the start of the second half of the season.” 

Dukuzumuremyi further claims that playing most of the matches away from their home ground has become costly for their fans, who have to pay for travel costs and the club has failed to reach the objective of making them happy.

Before the start of this season, FERWAFA inspected the home grounds of Gicumbi FC, Pépinière, Amagaju FC as well as Sunrise FC, and all were asked to make improvements before the grounds were approved to host league matches.

However, when contacted, FERWAFA’s head of competitions Jackson Rutayisire said that there was no need for any team to get to an extent of pulling out of the league, saying that they would soon make a second inspection to those grounds to see whether their recommendations were carried out.

"On Thursday we will visit both Pépinière and Gicumbi grounds to inspect whether they refurbished the stadiums like what we had requested them to do,” he noted.

Gicumbi FC are second from bottom of the table with just four points from tens matches. Coach Hussein Baraka’s team have won one, drawn one and lost eight matches in the league this campaign.

They beat SC Kiyovu 4-1 at Mumena and drew 1-1 with APR at Kigali Regional Stadium. They will face Sunrise this Friday, before hosting Mukura Victory Sports on January 8.

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