As football clubs prepare for the 2021/22 season three months after the end of the 2020/21, Times Sport looks at what football fans should expect in the new league season that begins in two weeks’ time. When is the league kick off? The top flight league is set to commence on October 30. The league was initially expected to start on October 16 but FERWAFA decided to postpone it to make way for the 2020/21 second division league season to conclude. The second division concluded on Friday, October 15 with Gicumbi FC ending the campaign as champions after beating Etoile de l’ Est on penalties in the final. Both teams, however, booked a ticket to play in the 16-team top flight league next season. When is the transfer window deadline? Clubs have until Monday, October 18, to sign new players and the deadline will apply to all teams including Gicumbi FC and Étoile de l’Est which were promoted to the top flight league last week. The two clubs may have been busy playing in the second division league and could not concentrate in the transfer market until they booked tickets to the top flight league but Jules Karangwa, the FERWAFA spokesperson told Times Sport that they won’t have extra days to sign players as per the FIFA Transfer Matching System (TMS) instructions. “It’s not possible to give a specific window to two teams as per the functioning of the FIFA TMS...that issue is due to the fact that their competition was delayed to take place given the timeframe that we had included in the system as per the rules,” Karangwa said in an interview. “We had already exhausted 12 weeks allowed and [second division] clubs were informed about it before engaging in this tournament,” he added. Will football fans finally return to stadiums? In August, Sports Minister Aurore Mimosa Munyangaju announced that football fans will be allowed back into stadiums starting with the 2021/22 season. The move will mark the end of the suspension of football fans in stadiums since the first coronavirus case was confirmed in Rwanda in March last year. Will players be in residential camps? It’s not mandatory for clubs to stay in camps ahead of the new league season as per the current protocol. “It is now one of the options and it’s up to the clubs to choose,” Karangwa explained. When will league fixtures be released? FERWAFA’s initial plan was to release the 2021/22 league season fixtures on Friday, October 15, after the second division league final but the fixtures are not out yet.
