{"id":2000105708,"date":"2026-03-17T14:02:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T12:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/?p=2000105708"},"modified":"2026-03-17T13:55:22","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T11:55:22","slug":"kigali-city-mulls-creating-new-football-team-if-merging-efforts-fall-through","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/kigali-city-mulls-creating-new-football-team-if-merging-efforts-fall-through\/","title":{"rendered":"Kigali City mulls creating new football team if merging efforts fall through"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

On Sunday, March 15, 2026, a letter from the City of Kigali circulated, asking AS Kigali to make a decision on whether to dissolve and merge with other teams supported by the city, namely Kiyovu Sports and Gasogi United.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the time, Kiyovu Sports spokesperson Minani Hemed stated that the plan had been poorly considered and that it would erase the history of the club\u2019s establishment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gasogi United also expressed its opposition, claiming that such a merger was not feasible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaking to Radio Rwanda, Emma Claudine Ntirenganya, spokesperson for Kigali City, stated that if the teams refuse to merge, the city will stop its support for them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“If these teams [AS Kigali, Kiyovu, and Gasogi] fail to merge and decide to continue separately, the city will stop providing its support. However, we are still awaiting their response,” she noted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The teams have been given a deadline of March 30, 2026, to notify Kigali City of their decision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She added, \u201cIf all of them refuse, we plan to start with a new team and build it from the ground up. If they agree to merge, we will continue together in the top league.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kigali City emphasizes that the goal of merging these teams is to pool resources and help the new team become stronger and more competitive in fighting for trophies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Kigali City spokesperson, Emma Claudine Ntirenganya speaking to the press at a past event. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
The City of Kigali has proposed the merger of AS Kigali and Kiyovu Sports <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kigali City spokesperson, Emma Claudine Ntirenganya, has revealed that the city is ready to establish a new football team if AS Kigali, Gasogi United, and Kiyovu Sports fail to reach an agreement on merging into one team.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2000105712,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[151,69],"byline":[170],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-2000105708","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-editors-choice","tag-homehighlights","byline-igihe"],"bylines":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"contributors":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"featured_image":{"id":2000105712,"url":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/as-1.jpg","alt":"","caption":"The City of Kigali has proposed the merger of AS Kigali and Kiyovu Sports ","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":1000,"height":801,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/as-1.jpg","width":150,"height":120},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/as-1.jpg","width":300,"height":240},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/as-1.jpg","width":768,"height":615},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/as-1.jpg","width":1000,"height":801},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/as-1.jpg","width":1000,"height":801}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2000105708","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2000105708"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2000105708\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2000105716,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2000105708\/revisions\/2000105716"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000105712"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2000105708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2000105708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2000105708"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=2000105708"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=2000105708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}