Habineza intervention secures league sponsorship

Bralirwa has backtracked on its earlier decision not to sponsor the 2014/15 national football league after holding talks with Sports Minister Joseph Habineza, Times Sport can exclusively reveal. The Brewery Company released a statement on Thursday evening saying that talks with the Rwanda Football Federation (Ferwafa) had not made any progress and that they had decided not to renew sponsorship of the league. “On September 17th, 2014 Bralirwa sent Ferwafa a letter of intent in which we provided our proposed renewal terms for sponsorship of 2014/15 season. After much discussion we have not been able to reach an agreement with Ferwafa on the terms of renewal.” However Sports Minister Joseph Habineza met with officials of Bralirwa and Ferwafa yesterday morning and told this paper that a deal is expected to be signed next week. “I have met with Bralirwa officials and we had productive talks,” Minister Habineza said in a phone interview adding that a deal will be signed next week. It is not clear what exactly the two bodies failed to agree on. Bralirwa’s Marketing Manager Martine Gatabazi could not be reached for comment by press time. Bralirwa is the only company that has sponsored the league for the last few years. They gave Ferwafa Rwf170m last year. Clubs like Rayon Sport have criticised Ferwafa for not being able to negotiate a bigger sponsorship deal. Aimé Emmanuel Niyonsabye, Rayon Sport’s Secretary General says the money given to the club is little and only caters for transport. “Last year we were given Rwf200,000 for every match day which is very small and has little effect. Our Club uses over Rwf2m. I’m afraid that this is what we shall get again this season,” Niyonsabye says adding that Ferwafa needs to call for a General meeting with all stakeholders so that they discuss how to attract better sponsorship packages. The blues signed a 3 year deal with Skol last season where they received 50.000 Euros and will get a 20% increase this season and the next.