Effective next season, APR will finally recruit foreign players only to help the club perform well at continental club football.
It has been a decade now since the military side adopted a policy of using 100% homegrown players in 2012. However, club chairman Lt Gen. Mubarakh Muganga hinted that they could turn on some few foreign players to add competition to the club’s push for continental silverware.
Speaking to the media on Friday, December 23, Muganga said that the club is ready to bring in new foreign players if APR qualify to take part in CAF competitions starting from the 2023/24 season.
"Our policy as APR FC is to give opportunities to young Rwandan players and that will never change in the local competitions but if we get the chance to qualify for continental competitions, we'll bring in two or three foreign players if the coach wants them,” Muganga told journalists.
APR FC succeeded on the domestic level since the club management decided to give opportunities to Rwandan players to show what they are capable of. The military side won seven league titles and two peace cups.
However, the club failed to impress on continental level, having struggled to make it into the group stages of either the CAF Champions League or Confederation Cup.
The reigning league champions represented Rwanda in the CAF Champions League this season and, unfortunately, were eliminated in the second round after losing to US Monastir 3-1 on aggregate.
In 2020, they crashed out of the first round of the CAF Champions League at the hands of Gor Mahia.
The following year, the Rwanda Defense Force team beat Mogadishu City 2-1, but were later knocked out by Tunisia’s Etoile du Sahel who beat them 5-1 on aggregate.
Muganga accepted continental football failures that shaped the club over the decade, despite club's insistence on only homegrown players’ policy , and admitted that the club could start to depend on the services of some two or three quality players who can make the difference and bring experience in the team during future CAF club competitions.
"All these years we’ve been trying to reach there (group stages), but we failed. Maybe it was because we lacked some quality players,” he said.