Etincelles FC officials will meet next week to consider naming assistant coach Saidi Abed Makasi as the club caretaker when the Rwanda Premier League resumes, the club management has said. The development follows the sudden resignation of British tactician Colum Shaun Selby as club’s head coach on Tuesday, February 16. The Rubavu-based club issued a letter early at the start of this month suspending all employees from monthly payroll from January this year to balance their financial books after the Ministry of Sports decided to suspend the 2020/21 Rwanda Premier League in December after clubs failed to adhere to guidelines imposed by the government to contain Covid-19. Selby has since accused his employers of not supporting him financially and decided to resign from his coaching role as indicated in a resignation letter addressed to the club management on Tuesday, February 16. ‘I am writing to you today [Tuesday] to resign immediately from my position as the Head Coach of Etincelles Football Club due to lack of payment and support from my employers,” Selby stated in the resignation letter. However, Emmanuel Ndolimana, the Club’s Secretary General, said that the club management amicably agreed with its employees about the decision to suspend the wages until the resumption of the premier league as a result of the crisis caused by the pandemic but the coach didn’t agree with the decision. Ndolimana said the club management committee will meet soon to assess Selby’s resignation, and also decide on an interim replacement who is most likely to be Said Abed Makasi. The former Rayon Sports forward, who was part of the Amavubi Stars team that played in the 2004 Africa Cup of Nations in Tunisia, joined Etincelles in July last year as an assistant coach for two years. “I believe Saidi is a coach who has been in Rwandan Football for years and for that reason, we are in no rush to hire another coach. We will meet to decide whether to name an interim coach but he is the favourite,” Ndolimana told Times Sport in an interview on Wednesday, February 17. The 38-year-old previously coached Espoir both as head coach in 2018 and assistant coach the following season until the league was suspended in March last year. Makasi played for Express FC (Uganda) from 1999-2000 where he played 24 games and scored 7 goals before joining AS Kigali (then Renaissance Kigali) in 2001 in a surprise move, scoring once in 13 appearances, before leaving the club the same year. He also played for Kampala City Council FC (Uganda) where he played 22 games and scored nine goals and SC Villa whom he played for 19 games and scored 8 goals. In 2004, he joined FC Brussels and after just one season, he signed for Turkish club Sakaryaspor. A year later, he joined Hapoel Petah Tikva in Israel before switching to Maccabi Herzliya the following season. The DR Congo-born player also played for Hapoel Be’er Sheva F.C. in 2009, Moroccan side Difaa El Jadida, where he played 31 scored 10 goals he joined Rayon Sport in 2010.
