Is there anything to write home about? 

Two years last month marked the ascending to Rwanda’s football’s top job of Brigadier General Jean Bosco Kazura, formerly the African Union Forces Deputy Commander in the troubled Sudan’s region of Darfur.

He won the Federation of Rwanda Football Association’s (Ferwafa) presidential elections with an overwhelming 100% vote count - 92 out of 92. The elections, presided over by the outgoing federation president Major General Ceasar Kayizari, were hailed as a wind of change in Rwandan football.

The three contestants, initially approved to vie for the presidential post, were reduced to two following the sudden withdrawal of Jean Mbanda at the last minute. Kazura was left in the race with Emmanuel Ngango, who did not manage to get even a single vote.

Jean Mbanda, who stunningly pulled out his candidature at the time everybody expected him to release his manifesto, said that he was standing down for Kazura.

"Upon learning of Kazura’s candidature, I and colleagues from Sports Club Kiyovu decided to pull out of the race and throw our weight behind him," said Mbanda at the time. Kazura thanked the members for voting him into office, and pledged to work towards further development of football in the country.

"Thank you indeed for your votes and I would like to thank the outgoing committee for the tremendous job so far done. The new executive committee is going to start from where the former stopped in the development of football in the country," he said.

He begged all the stakeholders in football to collaborate with his team to steer football to greater heights. "I think I have a team made up of young and energetic men ready to work for the good of the game," Kazura remarked.

Great leaders have come and gone but none has come close to contest Kazura’s limelight in the local press. Written off by many in the local media as a non-starter whose administration wouldn’t stand the wind of change that was blowing Rwandan football at the time, the flamboyant administrator and his group of lieutenants like Jules Kalisa and Vedaste Kayiranga have soldiered on half way into their tenure.

Youth development is on the lips of every football administrator, backed by thousands of dollars in Fifa grants and it has become a perquisite to take over football offices across the globe. Ferwafa in the last two years has not fared very well in this project.

Looking at the senior national team that is supposed to be fed by the national junior category teams, it’s still a team of players whose pension days are near. Not very many junior players are coming through.

However according to Kazura the trend is changing for the better; Each team participating in the national league has been put to task to have a junior side competing in the feeder junior national league.

Rwandan soccer has struggled to bridge the gap left by a lost generation, but young players are now coming through to fill the void in the national team.

Ferwafa has been slowly trying to rebuild the game and feels it is making progress.

An estimated one million people, many of them teenage boys who would have made it as football players, died in the 1994 Genocide, when militia turned on their fellow countrymen in a mass slaughter.

"We have a team in transition because this country lacks a whole generation of players in their mid-20s. As the more established team members have got older, we’ve had to look for much younger talent to integrate into the side and I think it’s only now we are coming out of the valley," said ex- national team coach Nees, who was sacked last October.

Rwanda were surprise participants at the 2004 Nations Cup finals in Tunisia, only narrowly failing to reach the quarter-finals in a performance hailed as a fairytale for a country still recovering from its traumatic experience.

Now the junior categories compete internationally, however, and the football body has had to set up the country’s U-17 and U-20 teams to fill the gap.

"It will be a gradual transition, and we shall reach our goals. For the last two years we have tried to put everything in place so as to achieve our goal". Kazura said

"The challenge is to integrate the talented youngsters we have identified with the established stars," added Kazura.

JC Ndoli (APR), Ismail Nshutinamagara (Atraco), Arafat Serugendo (Mukura), Aimable Rucogoza (Rayon), Jean Bosco Uwacu (APR), Donatien Tuyizere (Atraco), Jean Baptista Mugiraneza (APR), Haruna Niyonzima (APR), Hegman Ngoma (APR), Jean Shyaka (Atraco), Vianney Rukundo (APR) Elias Uzamukunda (APR).

The national league has been dominated by Military side APR since 1995. Today there is no single local or regional trophy on which APR’s name is not inscribed overlapping Rayon sport in the process.

Both clubs have been the most consistent on the continent, featuring in the Caf champions and the Caf Cup. However the two teams haven’t transformed their national form on to the continent.

This dominance was only threatened by Atraco last year. To break this cycle of events, the federation in conjunction with clubs has to embark on a profitable venture in order to financially empower other clubs to be at the some footing with the trio.

A beneficial setting to all parties has to be created for private companies to bankroll teams. Branding and marketing of the league has to be put in place for every club to attract its own sponsorship.

According to Kazura, clubs have to take the initiative of attracting investors into the league, as it’s the only way that will create competition in the national league.

Apart from the lack of a financial base to run the league, the competitiveness has increased with the improvement of the referees; so the league will continue to grow.

Ends