THE next edition of the Peace Cup tournament has been postponed to January, 2010 after the local football body, Ferwafa failed to secure sponsors for the knockout competition.

Ferwafa Chief Executive Officer Jules Kalisa told Times Sport yesterday that the tournament, which had initially been scheduled to start today (Wednesday) has been pushed to January because some of the participating teams are facing financial constraints.

"Many clubs don’t have money to enable them compete effectively in this tournament, that’s why we have decided to push it to next month as we also work out on securing a sponsor,” Kalisa said.

Kalisa added that they hope to acquire a sponsor before confirming the actual start of the tournament whose winner represents the country in Africa’s Confederation Cup.

"If we get a sponsor, then clubs will be given money to cater for transport and other requirements.”

MTN Rwanda has sponsored the last two edition of the annual knockout competition. MTN injected Frw20 millions last year and latter upped the stake to Frw50 millions this year.

The package saw clubs competing for total prize money of Rwf23 millions with the winner (Atraco) pocketing Rwf10m, a major increase from what APR won the previous year.

The military side was awarded Rwf5m for their win in the final of the 2008 edition.

The Mukura, APR and Rayon Sport clubs won Rwf7m, Rwf4m and Rwf2.5m for finishing second, third and fourth place finish respectively.

The other portion of the package (Rwf27 million) went into covering expenses like administrative costs, communication, transport of participating clubs, referees and purchasing medals and a trophy.

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