The key to making Rwanda’s national team, Amavubi a winning team is a sustained focus on youth development programmes. The Wasps have made failed attempted to return to the Africa Cup of Nations finals since making her debut in 2004. Despite hefty sums of money that has been spent in the name of achieving success, the national team just needs a pipeline of talent in order to be successful.We should have this development channel full of talent. We need to drive it even harder. Amavubi’s immediate goal is to win its qualifiers for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.But even if they win and qualify to Brazil finals next year, which looks almost impossible, what will do there? Shall we able to contend against the World’s football giants or we will end up being a punching bag of the tournament?As we develop a sustainable and strong talent development plan, a series of international friendly matches should be arranged to ensure that the team continues to rise in Fifa rankings and achieved a seeding in international tournaments.To be honest I don’t think, at the moment, Ferwafa nor the Ministry of Sports and Culture, have any plan for Amavubi to be where they should be?As Rwandans, we should have collective responsibility for the failure to qualify, and stop firing coaches for failed campaigns since Ferwafa and Minispoc don’t exactly specify realistic targets they need from Amavubi coaches.Before any Amavubi coach is given a coaching role to take Rwanda to Africa or world finals, first ensure that your have right structures that will enable the Amavubi ‘roof’ to be strong other than crumble.We need to professionalise the national football league, establish firm grassroots football foundation which should act as a source of good, young Rwandan players to the third, second and premier football leagues.The various football academies that we had in the past two years have all collapsed- Amavubi academy of excellence, Kiyovu academy, Police academy and APR academy are no where to be heard of. These academies need to be resurrected to ensure that we have a large pool of youngsters, who can form U-17, U-20 and U-23 teams if we are to have a solid senior team.However, if these structures don’t existent, how do you expect a coach to come and do‘miracle’ by guiding Rwanda to Nation’s Cup finals? It’s practically impossible.Ferwafa led by Celestin Ntagungira must ensure the coach is well supported and facilitated, create the right environment around him to be able to attain the set targets. The right thing to do for Rwandan football is to build youth development structures deep from the villages to a professionalized league and the rest, including success will come gradually.Whoever makes decisions for Amavubi needs to know that a national team is valuable asset to all Rwandans and even though we are struggling financially as a nation, we need to motivate our players in order to deliver the results that we need from them.Every sportsman needs a little bit of motivation and this is why our sports decision makers should ensure that our national teams are motivated. It is reported in a section of Ferwafa officials that with the Ministry of Sports and Culture they have decided to revise bonuses for Amavubi. Initially, they were getting $300 for reporting to camp and $700 for winning any international match.This time round it has been dropped to $150 for reporting to camp; $180 for making into the final 18-man team and $500 as an allowance for playing the match, making it a total of $830.Football officials to seek support from the private sector, who are willing to associate themselves with the national and it is very much possible to even get bonuses for Amavubi team increased to even $2000 per player if presented with an attracting proposal.We must play our respective roles and let Amavubi do theirs with a happy and positive atmosphere. The next match for Amavubi, against Mali on March 24 in Kigali, is a do-or-die encounter.Go Amavubi.
