The management of Kiyovu SC has become the first top-flight club to suspend working contracts of all its employees, including players and coaches, until the Rwanda Premier League resumes.
The decision comes after the Ministry of Sports suspended the 2020/21 Rwanda Premier League season indefinitely after just three match days, having found that some players and clubs had violated covid-19 guidelines, which resulted in new cases.
"Following the suspension of all football activities in Rwanda since December 12, 2020, as it has been directed by FERWAFA, Kiyovu Sports management has decided to temporarily lay off its employees until further announcement from federation to resume sports activities,” the club announced on a Twitter on Friday, January 15.
The club’s management, however, pledged to keep helping its employees during the pandemic as long as the resources are available and further said they will bring all its staff members back to its monthly payroll as soon as they are back to work.
The new season, which started on December 4, remains suspended until further notice and more top-flight clubs could follow the Mumena-based club to temporarily lay off employees as the premier league shows no signs of resuming any time soon following the growing number of covid-19 infections and death toll since December.
Besides Rwanda Premier League, a number of local and international sports tournaments that Rwanda was expecting to host were recently suspended due to the pandemic.
For instance, the Beach volleyball World Tour, which was scheduled from February 10 -14 in Rubavu, was pushed from February to June while Tour du Rwanda 2021, which was due in February was also rescheduled in May.
The Kigali International Peace Marathon was also rescheduled in June while the Rwamagana Marathon was cancelled.
For special reasons, however, some teams will continue to prepare for ongoing international sports competitions.
AS Kigali resumed training earlier this week as they bid oust Tunisian club, CS Sfaxien in next month’s the CAF Confederation Cup layoffs and push through to the group stages while the national Basketball team are set to resume training next week ahead of the FIBA Afrobasket qualifiers slated for February 17-21 in Monastir, Tunisia.