The management of Kiyovu Sports has handed their club skipper Olivier Seif Niyonzima a six-game suspension due to misconduct.

The suspension, which takes effect on March 10, means that the midfielder won’t play for the club for the remainder of the 2023/24 season.

In a letter addressed to the Rwanda international on March 9, club president Abdul Karim Mbonyumuvunyi informed the player that the club executive committee imposed the suspension on him "based on inappropriate behavior that shaped you at Kiyovu Sports recently.”

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Sources say that Niyonzima was handed the suspension days after telling his teammates to refuse to train when the team was preparing for the league match against Etoile de l’Est on March 9 after reportedly going five months without salaries. The club eventually lost the match 1-0 at Ngoma Stadium.

Niyonzima is currently on national team duty preparing for two international friendly matches against Madagascar and Botswana this month.

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Crisis at SC Kiyovu

It is reported that Kiyovu, who have struggled off the field as much as they have on the pitch, have failed to pay their players for the last five months.

The latest financial situation, which ranks among the worst that the club has gone through, may have been caused by the crisis associated with the fact that the club was told to pay arrears in excess of Rwf 100 million to former players Sharaf Shaiboub and John Mano among other players who dragged the team to world football governing body (FIFA) for breaching their working contracts.

The club is currently banned from signing players until the arrears are cleared.