What next for Rwandan football?

The U-17 Fifa world cup in Mexico is still ongoing but for Rwanda it ended unsurprisingly prematurely, and with the end of the junior wasps’ involvement in the tournament, ends the excitement that filled the nation when the team qualified for the event. For starters, Rwanda was actually the first African team to book a ticket to Mexico courtesy of the win over Egypt in the quarterfinals of the African Youth Championship held in Kigali early this year. With home advantage, the junior wasps buzzed all the way to the final where they were beaten 2-1 by Burkina Faso, a side they had beaten in the group stage by the same score. Unfortunately, both teams were among the first on the plane to return after finishing a disappointing bottom in their respective groups. Unlike Rwanda, the Africa champions left Mexico with neither a goal nor point to show off for their effort. At least, the junior wasps managed a point, despite failing to find the back of the opposition nets in 270 minutes of World Cup football. However, was a point and no goals good enough for us to truly say the team didn’t fail on its debut in a Fifa competition? The answer to that is a yes and no. Yes in a sense that we didn’t expect much from the boys, and by the virtue of the fact that they didn’t go down lyingon their backs, is enough to appease even their biggest critic. And no because they had chances to do better and didn’t take them, so many that it was disappointing. As debutants at the finals of a Fifa world cup, the first team from the East and Central African region, Rwandans can only be very proud of their team’s achievement given where the country and her people in general is coming from. The fact that all but one or two players of the whole world cup squad were born after the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi, is refreshing enough. Indeed if these boys could be taken good care of, then Rwandans can hope for a bright future. The current senior national team does not give good signs of better things to come, which means we can only invest more of the available resources, for the best interest of Rwandan football, in the junior players if this country is ever going to benefit from the fruits of these young seeds. Personally, I haven’t seen anything special from the junior wasp players to get excited about, but at least we have seen the potential in some of them, which gives hope that there could be some light at the end of the tunnel. But, if we are relying on the current junior players to rescue the fortunes of the senior national team, then please whoever is in charge of these players shouldn’t allow them to join APR or any of the so-called big clubs in the country. APR’s record with the best young talents in recent years doesn’t give a good reading as far as developing their careers is concerned, therefore going there for any of the young players from the world cup could be the end of the road. As a must, there should be a concrete plan for this team or else we will be back to square one in two years’ time. Keeping them in the respective academies isn’t sustainable in the long run as they grow older, letting them make their own decisions is unthinkable as most are not exposed enough to know what they want for the best of the beckoning careers. Is APR a regional nyakatsi? Yesterday, I couldn’t stop laughing after APR were eliminated from the ongoing Cecafa/Kagame club championship in Tanzania. In-fact, I wasn’t laughing at the fact that the three-time champions and defending champions didn’t come out of the group but at the reactions back in Kigali—some people [mostly rival fans] mocked the military side for having turned into a regional football ‘nyakatsi’ [grass-thatched house]. As holders, APR went into the tournament as one of the favourites but it’s a shame that they’ll be on the same plane with Etincelles today on their way back home after just one week away. Before this latest failure to win the tournament away from Kigali, critics had labeled APR as ‘local defence’, due to the fact that all their regional titles have been won in Kigali. Now, in nyakatsi APR have a new and probably fitting name, but they also still keep their local defence description. The story of nyakatsi is one most, if not all Rwandans are well versed with; we are all well aware of the government’s plan as far as those mud structure are concerned. However, does the description fit the country’s most successful and richest football club simply because they’re returning home from Tanzania earlier than expected? For Etincelles, it is little or no surprise that they didn’t fare well on their debut in the regional tournament. We didn’t expect much from them and they didn’t disappoint. But what’s more disappointing is the fact that not a single coin of our President’s money is coming back to Rwanda. President Kagame provides the winners’ prize money to a tune of US$60000 since 2002. Amavubi Stars all but out of the running to qualify for the 2012 Nations Cup, the U-23 side failed to qualify for this year’s All Africa Games, the U-17 team couldn’t make an impact on their debut Fifa World Cup finals and now the country’s two teams are out of the Cecafa cup in the first week, what next for Rwandan football?nku78@yahoo.com