Rwanda risks FIVB international sanctions

RWANDA volleyball federation risks sanctions from the International volleyball federation (FIVB) and a fine of Rwf92.5m over transfer irregularities of four Kenyan players who featured in the national league this season.Four players namely; Dorcus Ndasaba, Margret Indakalla, Sila Kipchirchir Makiso and Bernard Oselu featured for both APR’s women and men’s volleyball clubs in this year’s national volleyball league before the issuance and after the expiry of their International Transfer Certificates (ITC) this year.Makiso featured for APR in the national volleyball league against UNR and Lycee de Nyanza on March 10 before his ITC was released five days later following the approval from Kenya national federation.Ndasaba also featured for APR women volleyball club on March 9 against Ruhango and RRA before her ITC would be released on March 14.The Kenyan trio of Oselu, Indakalla and Ndasaba again featured for APR clubs on June 9 and 10 following the expiry of their ITCs which went out of use on May 15.The federation boss Charles Uyisenga clarified that even though the players featured for their clubs, they had applied for an extension of their ITCs from the African Confederation body CAVB which later approved and issued the extension on July 3, meaning that the trio had illegally played for the clubs.Yet, Uyisenga believes no irregularity was exhibited in the transfer procedure. “There is no basis to say that we allowed players to play without legal documents,” added Uyisenga in a news conference recently.The issue has prompted the National University of Rwanda (NUR) to petition the federation requesting for clarification on the matter.If NUR appeals to FIVB because the local federation is already biased and reluctant to explain their wrongdoing, then Rwanda volleyball federation would be fined heavily under the FIVB electronic international transfer procedure; 3.9 Sanction which states that a national federation registering foreign players in its clubs without having duly completed the international transfer certificate procedure, will be fined CHF 30,000 (Rwf18.5m) per player, as stated in the FIVB financial regulations too.The federation’s technical director Christian Hatumimana said yesterday, “Initially, we had a confirmation letter authorising those players to play for APR before their ITCs were issued.”“Secondly, after the expiry of their ITCs on May 15, we requested extension of their ITCs to enable them compete in the national league. But even from June until September, this period is called a transition period which means that players who don’t feature for their former teams are allowed to play for their clubs even without their ITCs,” added Hatumimana.APR’s volleyball club vice chairman, Jean Pierre Kayumba also said, “We featured players who had duly completed ITCs. After their expiry, we requested permission from CAVB to extend their ITCs and this was done, so i think the allegations that our players featured in the national league without ITCs are baseless,”Insiders have also confided in this reporter that after citing the implications of this issue, the federation officials forged an email address to be on a safer side showing that they were issued with a confirmation letter from FIVB allowing the Kenyan players to feature in the national league. No official is coming out to show it to the public just like they have shown other documents related to the issue.This will be the second time that Rwanda would be facing an international sanction. In February this year, the international tennis federation (ITF) was about to ban the country from international competition over failure to clear accumulated debts by the local tennis federation amounting to Rwf15.9m since 2010.The Ministry of Sports and Culture intervened and rescued the federation, paying the outstanding debt, which forced the executive committee to resign.With the volleyball federation transfer irregularity likely set to cost the government over Rwf90million, Minister Protais Mitali has warned the federation to take extra measures in ensuring that such a sanction is not slammed on Rwanda.“It would be very unfortunate if any of our federations committed another action that would drag the country into another ban or sanction yet we warned each of these federations to be careful when it comes to issues that can damage the reputation of the nation.”“I have heard from the media about the internal wrangles in the federation and we have summoned these officials but they assured us that there was no need for alarm.”“I am going to once again look into the matter but whoever is involved in this impropriety, will be held responsible if the international federation sanctions the volleyball federation,” added Mitali.When contacted, the FIVB Technical and Development Director Helgi Thorsteinsson forwarded our queries to the Volleyball Events Department which, by press time, had not given any response.