Ferwafa and Royal Spanish Football Federation ink cooperation agreement

RWANDA Football Federation (Ferwafa) has entered into a cooperation agreement with the Royal Spanish Football Federation which will directly benefit Rwandan coaches, players and referees.Ferwafa chairman Celestin ‘Abega’ Ntagungira and his Spanish counterpart Angel Maria Villar Llona signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Wednesday at the Spanish federation headquarters in La Ciudad del Futbol of Las Rozas, near Madrid.“The aim of this MoU is to strengthen our partnership and we will focus on the areas of coaches, referees and players development,” Ntagungira told Times Sport yesterday,” Ntagungira told Times Sport yesterday.“There will be an exchange programme between the two federations which will see Ferwafa send coaches, referees and young players to go for training in Spain. The latter will also send their experts to train our coaches and referees,” added the former international referee.He noted that as part of detection of talent, Spain will send an expert to help Ferwafa understand well talent promotion as well as other technical assistance and coaching education.The deal comes at a time when the country is exploring ways of nurturing young players from the grassroots with an aim of creating a wide pool of competitive players for national teams in different age categories, including U-17, U-20, U-23 and the senior team.Both countries have had contrasting experiences in recent past. On the one hand, Rwanda’s football has taken a nosedive over the past few years, while on the other, Spain has dominated world football, winning the 2010 Fifa World Cup and the last two Uefa championships.Rwanda sees grassroots and youth football as the single most important strategy that could help turn around its fortunes in football.The country’s maiden and only appearance at the African Cup of Nations – in 2004 in Tunisia – remains its biggest achievement so far.

Sports

Ferwafa and Royal Spanish Football Federation ink cooperation agreement