Former Mukura Victory Sports secretary general, Sheikh Hamdan Habimana, has promised to work ‘tirelessly’ to improve Rwandan youth football, if elected to head Ijabo Ryawe.

Habimana is one of the three aspirants for the position of president, along with Ildephonse Nkotanyi, Aloys Ntahobitagwa and Dr Philemon Rukema.

Ijabo Ryawe, an umbrella body that brings together all local football academies and training centres, is a member of the Rwanda Football Federation (FERWAFA). The polls will be conducted on Friday at FERWAFA headquarters in Remera.

"First, I want to improve the talent detection programmes. We have something going on at the moment, but we can do more and a lot better, secondly, I want to improve the competition among the different age-brackets,” said Habimana.

He added that, "I will also work tirelessly to improve the capacity of coaches in the academies and training centres throughout the county; if we have quality trainers it means we’ll also have quality products. I will work closely with other partners to raise the level of youth football because it’s the foundation of the senior team.”

The position of president fell vacant earlier this month following the resignation of Elvis Mironko, a position he had held since November, 2015.

Ijabo Ryawe comprises 223 members spreads across five zonal leagues in the country.

Efforts to talk to the three other candidates proved futile as they could not be reached on their known phone numbers.

Ijabo Ryawe will hold U-13 tournament in April which will be the source of players for the U-15 and U-17 competitions lined up this year.

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