Rwanda has withdrawn its bid to host the 2019 FIFA U-17 World Cup tournament, according to the local football governing body, Rwanda Football Federation (FERWAFA).

FERWAFA president Vincent Nzamwita said in a statement on Thursday that Rwanda had informed FIFA of her decision to withdraw their bid to host the tournament due to "time factor” and "logistics aspects.”

"After submitting our intent last year to host the tournament and having critically realised that we are left with a few months to the start of the tournament (between August-October, 2019), we believe we don’t have enough time to logistically meet the minimum requirements of hosting a successful 2019 FIFA U-17 World Cup Tournament that we desire as a nation,” the statement reads in parts.

He adds, "We have talked with our major stakeholders involved in this process from the onset and we think this is the right decision to take. We, however, remain committed and open to hosting any other football event that would be entrusted to us in future.”

The delay by FIFA to assess Rwanda’s readiness also hampered plans of ensuring that the facilities requested by FIFA would be availed on time after the visit, which was initially set for late February, was later postponed to a later date which is yet to be communicated.

The FIFA inspection visit would have enabled Rwanda to know the possible areas they needed to work on ahead of the finals tournament if the hosting rights were to be granted to Rwanda.

After the inspection visit, the FIFA team of experts would then have to report back to the FIFA Council before a final decision on the definitive host of the 2019 FIFA U-17 World Cup would be announced.

In November last year, Rwanda submitted her definitive bid to host the 2019 FIFA U-17 World Cup.

editorial@newtimes.co.rw