To start with, this text has nothing to do with my private emotions towards both APR FC or any native soccer membership. It’s about Rwandan soccer; how it’s run, ruled, and the integrity of the sport itself.
FERWAFA’s choice to award two trophies for the 2025/26 BK Professional League season could have been designed as a sensible answer to a rare scenario, but it surely has triggered an uncomfortable debate inside Rwandan soccer.
For the primary time in fashionable league soccer, one membership shall be topped the general league winner, whereas one other shall be recognised because the “nationwide champion.”
On one hand is Sudanese big Al Hilal Omdurman, the runaway leaders, dominant from begin to end, and clearly the perfect crew within the division. On the opposite is APR FC, the highest-ranked native facet and subsequently the membership designated to hold Rwanda’s flag in subsequent season’s CAF Champions League. The result’s a compromise not often, if ever, seen in fashionable league soccer: one champion by efficiency, one other by nationality. In response to a FERWAFA assertion signed by federation president Fabrice Shema, that is a part of a “particular association.”
And whereas FERWAFA can clarify the mechanics of the association, they can’t keep away from the deeper query now confronting Rwandan soccer: what precisely does it imply to be nationwide champions if you happen to didn’t really win the league?
The logic behind the association is comprehensible – even cheap – from an administrative standpoint. But it surely additionally raises uncomfortable questions.
When Sudan’s home soccer construction collapsed due to civil battle, Rwanda supplied refuge to 2 of the nation’s largest golf equipment, Al Hilal Omdurman and Al Merrikh SC.
It was each a gesture of solidarity and a chance. The presence of the Sudanese heavyweights elevated the league’s competitiveness, elevated its visibility, and attracted consideration far past Rwanda’s borders.
However from the very starting, there was all the time an apparent regulatory complication. In an article printed on November 14, 2025, I raised the query of how the champion could be decided ought to Al Hilal or Al Merrikh win the league.
CAF competitions are reserved for golf equipment affiliated with their very own nationwide associations, which means Rwanda can not ship a Sudanese membership to symbolize it in continental soccer.
The league subsequently wanted a mechanism that separated sporting advantage from nationwide illustration. That’s in all probability the place the concept of two trophies emerged. However are two trophies actually mandatory?
FERWAFA’s reasoning is easy: the general winner must be recognised for sporting excellence, whereas the perfect Rwandan facet ought to obtain the nation’s official continental slot and the home monetary rewards tied to native soccer improvement.
From a governance perspective, there may be logic to this. But from an expert soccer standpoint, there can solely be one winner, and solely the winner may be declared champion. You can not turn out to be champions by ending second or third. However it’s what it’s.
The Rwf80 million winner’s prize cash comes from a Rwandan competitors funded for the good thing about Rwandan soccer. It will be tough to justify allocating home improvement funds to visitor golf equipment that will depart the league as soon as stability returns to Sudan.
Likewise, CAF registration guidelines make it unimaginable for non-Rwandan golf equipment to occupy Rwanda’s Champions League slot.
Administratively, subsequently, the answer makes an attempt to guard everybody’s pursuits.
However soccer will not be ruled by administrative logic alone. It is usually ruled by emotion, symbolism, credibility, and aggressive integrity.
And for me, and possibly many others, that’s the place the controversy begins.
As a result of irrespective of how FERWAFA frames it, supporters perceive one common soccer reality: the champions are the crew that end first. Not second. Not the perfect native facet.
If Al Hilal end 11, 14, and even fewer factors clear, rating essentially the most objectives, and dominate the league from starting to finish, then they’re the undisputed champions of Rwanda’s prime flight.
Any further trophy handed elsewhere inevitably feels secondary or symbolic. That’s the uncomfortable actuality. It additionally locations APR, who’re favourites to complete second, or at worst within the prime three, in an ungainly place. Even when they’re formally topped Rwandan champions for a record-extending twenty fourth time and seventh consecutive season, the soccer public will do not forget that they didn’t win the league outright.
Actually, there stays a chance that APR could not even end second if Al Merrikh overtake them.
Can a membership genuinely rejoice a league title after ending behind two international visitor groups? Technically, maybe sure. Emotionally and traditionally, it turns into much more difficult.
That’s the reason this association dangers damaging the picture of the Rwanda Premier League, even when unintentionally. Within the eyes of many, aside from APR supporters, the military facet can’t be declared champions with out really profitable the league outright.
Sure, they will obtain the Rwf80 million prize cash and symbolize Rwanda within the CAF Champions League, however by way of claiming a twenty fourth league title, this season must be thought-about a “useless season.”
For years, Rwanda has labored onerous to current itself as an organised, formidable, and steadily bettering soccer nation. The league has invested in professionalism, broadcasting, and continental competitiveness.
However this season’s conclusion creates the impression that native golf equipment are being shielded from sporting failure by way of administrative changes.
In any case, why did FERWAFA wait till the ultimate three matches to announce the so-called “particular association” concerning the league winners and the designation of nationwide champions?
This could have been clarified at the beginning of the season to keep away from pointless suspicions and conspiracy theories. Asserting it on the tail finish of the marketing campaign raises extra questions than solutions.
The optics matter.
To outsiders, it might seem that Rwanda’s largest membership is being rewarded regardless of being unable to outperform invited groups enjoying away from residence and below extraordinary circumstances.
It additionally dangers creating the notion that league positions are usually not absolute, notably in relation to the present marketing campaign. And that’s harmful territory for any competitors.
Leagues derive legitimacy from simplicity: the desk determines the champion. As soon as exceptions emerge, confusion follows. CAF’s choice to declare Morocco AFCON 2025 champions regardless of shedding to Senegal involves thoughts.
But there may be additionally a powerful argument that FERWAFA had little or no various.
Had the Sudanese golf equipment been excluded from the title race altogether, critics would have accused the league of turning them into glorified exhibition individuals.
Their matches would lose aggressive which means. The integrity of the fixtures themselves could be questioned.
Permitting them to compete absolutely was the fairest sporting answer. However permitting them to symbolize Rwanda in CAF competitions was unimaginable. So, the authorities settled for a compromise that makes an attempt to fulfill each sporting advantage and regulatory necessity. Whether or not that compromise succeeds will largely rely upon how historical past remembers this season.
If this association stays a one-off emergency measure tied to Sudan’s extraordinary scenario, because it ought to, it might finally be considered as an uncommon however comprehensible chapter in Rwandan soccer historical past.
That’s the reason FERWAFA should be cautious, transferring ahead. Emergency options ought to stay precisely that: emergency options.
Soccer thrives on readability. Followers should all the time know what they’re competing for, what constitutes success, and who the true champions are.
In reality, there can solely be one real winner of the 2025/26 BK Professional League season.
And on the pitch, that crew is Al Hilal.
All the pieces else is administration, for there can by no means be two winners of a single competitors.
