Game against Amajita ruled out

Rwanda’s Under-20 team will play a friendly match against Egypt during its training camp due in Tunisia. The U-20 team is set to play several build-up matches as part of their  preparation ahead of the 16th African youth championship set for January 18-February 1 in Kigali enter their final stages.

Ferwafa Chief Executive Officer Jules Kalisa confirmed the development yesterday saying that Egypt is one of the countries which has shown interest in playing against Rwanda.
"Egypt had wanted to play this match here in Kigali but this would not be possible because the team is set to travel to Tunis this weekend.”

"We have therefore informed them (Egypt) to play the match away in Tunis since the team will spend close to one month undergoing intensive training,” Kalisa said.

Kalisa further added that a build-up against South Africa has been ruled out because the Amajita wanted the match to be played on December 17, a date which was not appropriate because the team will have started its camp in Tunisia.

"We would have wished to play on December 10 before out team departs for Tunisia but their engagement in the Cosafa U-20 championship collided with out departure,” Kalisa added. 
Meanwhile, the national U-20 head coach Obradovic Tomislav has named a provisional 26-man team for next year’s 16th African youth championship in Kigali.

The team will play against a Tunisian league side as Egypt in build matches before returning to Kigali to take part in the 2009 African Youth Championship.

In the team, Haruna Niyonzima, Jean Baptista Mugiraneza, Elias Uzamukunda and Jean Luc Ndayishimiye are the only players who featured in last year’s U-20 team which featured in the qualifiers for the Beijing Olympic Games.

The rest of the squad are new faces who have featured at the national U-17 and Amavubi team levels respectively.

Rwanda faces Mali, Cameroon and Ghana in Group A while Group B is made up of Nigeria, Ivory Coast, South Africa and Egypt.

Hosts Rwanda, which was seeded for the draw, will open the competition against Mali at Amahoro stadium on January 18, 2009 before another cracker sees Ghana taking on arch rivals Cameroon.

Rwanda needs only to reach the semi-finals of next year’s African Youth Championships to be assured of a place at the World Youth Championships finals to be hosted by Egypt.

Ends