APR FC head coach Taleb Abderrahim has taken a swipe at rivals Rayon Sports activities after guiding his facet to the 2026 Peace Cup title, joking that the membership might sack head coach Francis Haringingo following one other defeat to APR.
APR retained the Peace Cup after beating Rayon Sports activities 4–2 on penalties following a 1–1 attract regulation time.
Rayon Sports activities opened the scoring within the first half via Asman Ndikumana earlier than APR responded after the break with an equaliser from William Togui Mel, forcing the ultimate right into a penalty shootout that resulted in favour of the military facet.
ALSO READ: APR beat Rayon Sports activities on penalty shootouts to retain Peace Cup
Talking after the match, Abderrahim claimed Rayon Sports activities have developed a sample of fixing coaches after defeats to APR.
“I do know Rayon Sports activities very properly. Each time I beat them, they modify the coach. I beat them 3–0, they modified the coach. I beat them 4–1, they modified the coach. In the present day, I feel they will change the coach once more,” Abderrahim mentioned.
The APR coach insisted his facet managed the match and executed their sport plan successfully.
“We had been the group that performed soccer for 90 minutes and created many probabilities. Other than the penalty they scored, they did nothing else. We knew their techniques and that’s what I informed my gamers at half time. My gamers behaved like troopers.”
The Peace Cup triumph marks Abderrahim’s third trophy since taking cost of APR, having already received the Tremendous Cup and the BK Professional League title.
Rayon Sports activities, in the meantime, have endured repeated managerial adjustments following defeats to APR in current seasons. Through the 2025/26 marketing campaign alone, Harouna Ferouz was dismissed after a 3–0 league loss, whereas predecessor Lotfi Afahmia was additionally suspended throughout the identical interval. Bruno Ferry later departed after a 4–1 Tremendous Cup defeat and was changed by Haringingo.
Now beneath mounting stress, Haringingo admitted his facet misplaced focus after a promising begin.
“We performed good soccer to start with, however we misplaced focus. The aim they scored was our mistake — the defenders weren’t properly positioned. We are going to take it as a lesson and put together for the following matches,” Haringingo mentioned.
The Burundian coach might additionally come beneath additional scrutiny if Rayon Sports activities fail to safe a minimum of a second-place end within the BK Professional League sufficient to qualify for the CAF Confederation Cup subsequent season, with Police FC and Kiyovu SC nonetheless in rivalry.
