Football bosses must revive fans’ hopes in Amavubi Stars

THOUGH Rwanda play Zambia next Saturday in the most important match in the final campaign of the 2010 World Cup/Africa Cup of Nations qualifier, there is no enthusiasm at all. There is actually a feeling of depression among Rwandans that they are going into the final game with fingers crossed whereas our national team had all opportunities to reach this final game with heads high. However, this is not the case in Cairo where Algeria will be playing away to Egypt’s Pharaohs. The Fennecs are strong contenders for the single slot from Group Three for the World Cup finals in South Africa next year. They are clearly tipped to snatch the slot ahead of Egypt with only a goalless draw needed to send their country next year’s Africa’s maiden hosted World Cup finals as Zambia and Rwanda battle to finish among the top three, who will qualify for the Nations Cup finals in Angola in January. Isn’t it a matter of great concern that Rwandans have lost hope and faith in their national team even before the final Group C qualifier for the continent’s competition comes to an end? And it does not take a genius to pinpoint where the problem is. A rudderless technical bench, lackluster administration and the supervising authority looking at the other direction instead of taking appropriate measures to correct the mess that all combined has sabotaged the country’s game. This was said before and it will be repeated again. Rwanda to World Cup Branko Tucak and his technical team had no clue of where they wanted to take our national team. The Croat talked about taking Rwanda to the World Cup when he was unveiled. Those words run concave compared to his performance so far, especially vis-à-vis an approximate $15000(Rwf. 8.7 million) he earns as monthly salary. When Rwanda played a goalless draw against Algeria in Kigali, Tucak beamed with full confidence, with his campaign slogan of ‘Optimism, fanatism and confidence’, “I still have focus for the World Cup.” We went to Zambia and they hit us 1-0, he continued to express his full confidence of guiding the Amavubi Stars to South Africa, the team went to Egypt where they underwent total demolition in form of a 3-0 loss against the Pharaohs, suffered another 0-1 home defeat to Egypt before another 3-1 loss to Algeria and since then, he has shifted his focus to Angola finals and one wonders, what happens when the country loses to Zambia (which I never want too)………. He will cowardly come up with another lame excuse. Tucak has taken this country for granted and nevertheless why won’t he if his boss (Minister Joseph Habineza) continued to give him a shoulder to lean on even when every Rwandan could easily see that his tactics won’t earn us a result. Amavubi Stars have really become the whipping boys of Group C. This is a shame that could have been avoided had corrective measures been taken. When playing against Zambia, his poor choice of replacing Haruna Niyonzima with Bonaventure Hategikimana will always haunt every Rwandan, be it here or abroad. We were not supposed to lose the Zambia game and the loss should be attributed to the Croat’s poor tactics. As one of the coaches said recently, it is the choice of a coach to substitute any player without any intrusion. He, therefore, knows better why he preferred Hategikimana who is moreover a defender to replace an attacking midfielder who had caused problems to Zambian defenders in their own half and at the end of the day, his substitution proved him wrong. Rwanda Football federation, Ferwafa and the Sports Ministry have wasted goodwill and huge financial support by not pushing the national coach to get results. Ferwafa and Minispoc stand accused of not giving people their game. Tucak should be held responsible for Amavubi’s poor resultsFerwafa and Minispoc have continued to keep off Tucak’s work because they claim they don’t want him to blame them for interfering in his work. However, one question comes to mind, if you continue to say that you won’t interfere in his job, when shall we have success with our team? Do you think Rwanda will qualify for next year’s Nations’ Cup finals if you don’t do something right now? It’s time to act now by putting the Croat aside and let our local coaches handle the team against Zambia next Saturday. Does Tucak have any reason to continue with his job? He has failed to steer the team to greater heights in line with our expectations and thus should give a chance to top local coaches to manage the team next Saturday.. Contact; bonnex10@yahoo.co.uk