Afcon: Rwanda to appeal disqualification decision

Rwanda Football Federation will appeal the decision to disqualify Amavubi from the qualifiers for Africa Cup of Nations-Morocco 2015, the country’s FA general secretary has said. Rwanda has until Tuesday midnight to lodge the appeal to the Caf appeal board against yesterday’s decision by the 2015 Afcon organising committee to disqualify the country on the grounds that it fielded an ineligible player. Ferwafa SG Olivier Muhindahabi told Times Sport last evening that the federation was due to meet Monday (today) with their lawyers to thoroughly study the decision before filing an appeal within the stipulated 48 hours. RELATED: CAF suspends Amavubi striker Birori indefinitely “We received an email from Caf today indicating that Rwanda had been disqualified but we will definitely appeal the decision because it’s unfair,” he said yesterday, hours after news of broke that the country had been replaced by Congo in the qualifiers. Rwanda had been placed in Group A alongside Nigeria, South Africa and Sudan. The decision was based on the protest by the Congo Football Federation about Rwanda’s fielding of Congolese born striker Dady Birori on July 20, in Pointe-Noire, with the former arguing that the player uses two different names. In a statement, yesterday, the Afcon organising committee said it had indeed established that Birori is registered as Agiti Tady Etekiama and with a different age at his DR Congo club As Vita Club. “We feel we have a chance to have the decision overturned because we did not take part in the player’s change of name,” Mulindahabi told Times Sport yesterday. Birori was instrumental in Rwanda’s progression to the group stage of the 2015 Afcon qualifiers, and was the hero of the day when Rwanda outclassed Libya 3-0 in Kigali, scoring all the three goals and effectively firing Amavubi to the next round where they played Congo. Against Congo, he featured in the team that suffered a 2-0 away defeat but was unavailable for the return leg in Kigali when the Amavubi turned tables and booked a place in the final qualifying stage after winning 4-3 in shootouts having scored twice in regulation time to level matters 2-2 in aggregate. The player at the centre of the controversy is said to have two passports, one for Rwanda, under the name Daddy Birori, born December 12, 1986, and a Congolese (DR Congo) passport, in which he is identified as Agiti Tady Etekiama, born December 13, 1990. Ferwafa officials say they had no idea the striker had changed his name. But CAF says their investigations had concluded that Rwanda FA has previously identified the player as Etekiama Agiti Tady in a call-up to join the national team in camp. Caf rules do not allow players to by go two different identities. Meanwhile, the Afcon organising committee has suspended Birori from football matters until further notice. Whether he faces further sanctions will be decided during the upcoming Caf meeting on September 14, the continental governing body said yesterday. It remains unclear why Caf has previously turned down a similar petition by Libya whose qualification hopes were shattered by Birori at the Kigali Regional Stadium.

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Afcon: Rwanda to appeal disqualification decision