Five year ban for Ntagwabira

RWANDA’s football governing body, Ferwafa, has banned former Rayon Sport and Amavubi coach Jean Marie Ntagwabira from football related activities for five years after he was found guilty of match-fixing.In a statement, the federation Secretary General Michel Gasingwa said, “After reviewing the final remarks from the ethics and legal committee, the executive committee of Ferwafa has decided to ban Ntagwabira from any coaching roles at club and country level for a period of five years.” “Issa Kayinamura, (and not Baritonda as he was preferably referred to), who helped him execute the match-fixing scandal is also banned from attending any football venue in Rwanda for a period of five years,” added Gasingwa.Gasingwa said that the decision was reached after hearing from Ntagwabira, Kayinamura and the legal commission.The former Rwandan international shocked football fraternity on July 6 when he confessed to bribing Rayon players to throw away a league match against SC Kiyovu in 2009, which he coached at the time.He admitted to using Kayinamura to bribe a couple of players, whose identities remain a secret, to underperform. The encounter ended 3-2 in favour of Kiyovu.Kiyovu finished fourth that season but were promoted to third following the withdrawal from the league by Atraco that had finished second and Etincelles in third.However, Ntagwabira later retracted his statement, saying he was misunderstood. “People misunderstood my Kinyarwanda. I did not say I was involved in match-fixing. What I did was a way of scouting on my opponents.”“I gave Kayinamura money because I wanted him to get me information about Rayon Sport players and the technical team, and this information helped us on the technical side because we won the game and that is all I needed.“What I did was not match-fixing. I have never been involved in fixing matches and I never will,” noted the former Amavubi midfielder.The 38-year old is the only coach to win the national football league with two different clubs APR (4) and Atraco (1), and is rated by many as the best ever Rwandan coach.He was Dujkovic Ratomir’s assistant in 2004 when Rwanda made its maiden appearance at the finals tournament of the African Cup of Nations held in Tunisia.

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Five year ban for Ntagwabira