Inside Ferwafa’s fresh bid to revive Amavubi performance

Things have not been quite good with national team Amavubi for the last few years, with the county’s performance in international competitions being questioned by Rwandans on many occasions. The country has been going through a series of bad results that has seen them ranked lowly in Africa and globally by FIFA. The local football governing body (Ferwafa) led by Olivier Mugabo Nizeyimana is carrying the burden of the criticism and pressure from football enthusiasts who miss the golden moment that Amavubi enjoyed in 2004 when they qualified for the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON). While Ferwafa admits to taking the blame for recent failures of the national team, the top football governing body has drawn a blue-print to revive Amavubi’s performances. Learning from past mistakes Ranked 136th globally and 40th in Africa as per the latest FIFA rankings released last month, Rwanda’s current performance on the international scene does not impress Rwandan football enthusiasts, especially those who have witnessed the same country qualifying for the 2004 AFCON in Tunisia. And, even under new head coach Carlos Alos Ferrer, Amavubi’s form is going from bad to worse after the Spanish failed to qualify the country to next year’s African Nations Championship (2023) for the first time since 2016, after his men suffered a 1-0 defeat against Ethiopia in Huye. Ferwafa boss Olivier Mugabo Nizeyimana admitted Rwanda’s failures, including the failure to get a ticket to Algeria and acknowledged they need to learn from past mistakes. “We have to apologise [for failing to qualify] because it’s not how we planned it. We did all we could but things didn’t go according to plan,” Nizeyimana told journalists at a press conference held at the federation’s headquarters Friday. “We understand people’s feelings when we lose often but we have the will to see the national team improve their performances. We may not always win because we play teams that want to win as well, but we can at least get a result that makes Rwandans happy again,” he added. Appointing new technical director The absence of a competent technical director has left a gap that was hugely felt since Hussein Habimana resigned from the top position in 2020. The post has been vacant for over the past two years until the appointment of former France footballer Gérard Buscher who was unveiled as the new technical director on a two-year deal during Friday’s press conference. With Busher, who formerly assumed the same role in Mauritania and Tunisian side Espérance de Tunis, Nizeyimana hopes the French national will begin with training coaches to facilitate them to get advanced coaching licenses, especially CAF coaching License B, so they can extend their coaching services at the international level. Besides, Buscher was also tasked to elaborate a clear football system for the national team as well concentrate on the football development among young talents. “I believe he has a clear plan to revive our football. He is going to be the engine of our football development from the young talented youth,” Nizeyimana said. Extending Ferrer’s contract Despite his shock failure to qualify Rwanda to CHAN 2023 in Algeria, Ferwafa is still backing Carlos Ferrer to turn results around in the future, with the Africa Cup of Nations now his next test. The federation last week confirmed that they are considering extending his contract to stay with Amavubi to give him ample time to prepare his team. “We discussed the possibility of extending [Ferrer’s] contract and he was open to staying with us,” said Nizeyimana. Regular international friendlies Although coaches take the majority of the blame when the national team does not perform well, many have decried the lack of international friendly matches as one of their biggest challenges to prepare the national team and hence go short of opportunities to test their level of performance against other teams. The issue has been there for quite some time but the federation is now looking to end the issue by finding as many friendlies for the national team to not only keep the group of players together but also give the coach an opportunity to select the squad based on the performance in such matches. Nizeyimana promised to get as many international friendships as possible as long as they can contribute to Amavubi’s performance in a way or another. Naturalising foreign players? In their prime, the likes of Ghanaian Michael Sarpong and Nigerian Samson Babua expressed their interest in playing for Amavubi, especially when they were plying their trade at Rayon Sports and Sunrise FC respectively. Babua is married to a Rwandan and has been looking to take his form on club level to the national team...maybe not with Nigeria given that he has no chance...but with Amavubi who have been struggling for goals for so many years. There were chances for both players to feature in the national team just like it happens in the national basketball team but things fell through unfortunately. However, Nizeyimana said there is a possibility that they could one day need the services of foreign players who can go through the process of getting Rwandan nationality if they are willing to play for the national team. “We can’t afford to fill in the national team with foreign players because it’s a team of Rwandan players but we could one day pick two or three who can add something to the team’s performance. It’s something we are discussing with the Ministry of Sports and I hope it will happen,” Nizeyimana said.