It’s been quite a while since I posted anything in these pages, and that’s not a good thing, certainly not good news or is it? Missed you (the ardent readers of this column for the past five years and still going), and I tell you what, it feels good to be back with you. So, fasten your seat belts as we roll together into and through 2009.

And for Rwandan sport, the New Year has come with some good news in regards to the future of the much maligned Rwanda National Olympics Committee, but again 2009 has started with more false dawns for the unfashionable Amavubi Stars.

On a personal level, last year (2008) gave me the best possible start to a new year I had ever had. First I welcomed my first born into the world, and then I attended the Africa Cup of Nations, all in the same month. What more could a man ever ask for?

But 2009, even though we’re just ten days into it, doesn’t promise much as the global credit crunch look as though it’s about to catch up with even a broke chap like your columnist, yes it’s getting damn serious, dare ask anyone around you for credit to understand well what I’m talking about.

The credit crunch and the inevitable poverty (temporary in many cases) that comes with the start of the year, coupled with Amavubi Stars wretched campaign at the ongoing Cecafa senior challenge cup, are two things threatening to wreck my start of yet another year.

Thank God you and me are still breathing, how many would have wanted to be in my or your position, but were never lucky to make it to this day? So, better start counting your lucky stars now as you might probably not live to see another January!

So, 2009 starts with Tucak Branko and his boys mercilessly conniving to hand the over nine millions Rwandans an ‘unforgettable’ new year present!

For starters, Rwanda failed to progress from the group stages of the 2008 regional challenge cup taking place in the Ugandan capital, Kampala for the first time since 2004 and only the second time since 1999 when, Rwanda B beat Kenya at Amahoro to lift the only title in the country’s history.  

Faced with such scenario, do you ever just wish people would get on with their jobs and keep their mouths shut? Yeah, alright, smarty pants, that doesn’t include me. I’m talking about Amavubi’s demise at the ongoing Cecafa senior challenge cup.

The man in charge of guiding Rwanda to success, (yes, I’m talking about that man from Croatia who just hates the local media with passion, quote me here, ‘with passion’), thinks he could have won the title but he didn’t because he didn’t have ‘enough defender in the team’!

That’s is a bit like me saying I could have bought that brand spanking new mansion in Nyarutarama, but I didn’t because I couldn’t afford it – pointless.

Yeah, fair enough Tucak, you could have won it but ultimately you failed to do so and Amavubi are going to be lumbered with their regional rivals, at least until the next edition. Thank you for the ‘unforgettable’ new year present.

Having reached at least the last four of the regional annual championships in all but one of the previous nine editions, Amavubi fans are not used to seeing their team returning home after only one week at a tournament that lasts two weeks.

But life is a learning curve, we learn through experience, and it’s even much better if you learnt the hard way. Let’s hope, Tucak learns his lesson, after all, life doesn’t stop at Cecafa, he has some ‘minor’ issues to deal with when the 2010 World Cup and Nations Cup qualifiers get underway in less than three months’ time.

Away from the Amavubi scam, and Tucak’s unforgettable new year present to the over nine millions Rwandans, 2009 has also come with the surprising news (surprising because of the timing) but not that not all that earth-breaking that former sports Minister Robert Bayiganba wants to contest for the Rwanda National Olympics Committee top seat.

It’s the kind of news that took the gross of Amavubi’s horrible showing in Kampala off the ladder of things that would occupy my mind; at least before the African Youth Championships gets underway for the first time on the East and Central African soil, in Kigali on January 18 until February 1.

So, no news is good news but after the Amavubi debacle and then you hear someone like Mr. Bayiganba with a somehow clean truck record during his time as sports Minister throwing his name in the hat to take over a wrecked local Olympics committee from Ignace Beraho.

What about the fact that we start the year with the second biggest continental football championships involving national teams after the Nations Cup? I truly couldn’t have asked for better news in Rwandan sports. And you?

New Sunday! New Week! New Month! New Year….All New! May 2009 come with New approach to the development of Rwandan sport! New Achievements! New Life, New Hope (that we qualify for 2010 CAN)!

Belated Happy New Year everyone reading this column.

Contact: nku78@yahoo.com