The Confederation of African Football (CAF) has increased the amount of money it gives to teams participating in the preparatory competitions, doubling the amount given to participating teams.
Rayon Sports and APR FC are the teams that will represent Rwanda in the CAF Champions League and Confederations Cup African games. Normally, CAF gave participating teams 50 thousand US dollars, but now there are reports that this amount has been increased to 100 thousand US dollars, which is more than 140 million Rwandan francs.
CAF decided to increase this amount so that teams that are struggling to participate in these games can play the preliminary qualifiers easily. For teams from the African region where Rwanda is located, when they travel to Arabia, they spend more than 70 million Rwandan francs, while they use their travel budget wisely and it depends on the team they are with.
Some of the trips Rwandan teams have made to African games cost that much money, when Rayon Sports traveled to Libya in 2023 to play Al-Ahil Benghazi in the second round of the CAF Confederations Cup, this trip cost over 65 million Rwf. For APR FC, there are trips that cost over 100 million Rwf.
This money CAF has provided is expected to help these teams in their journeys to the first round because every time you advance through a group, you are given money, especially if a team reaches the CAF Champions League groups they receive 700,000 USDT, which is over 950 million Frw, while those who reach the CAF Confederations Cup groups receive 400,000 USDT, which is over 570 million Frw.
This year’s African Cup of Nations is scheduled to begin with the preliminary round of qualifiers between 19-21 September 2025, with the second round of qualifiers between 26 and 28 September 2025, and the second round of qualifiers between 17-19 October 2025.
CAF also announced that teams participating in the tournament must have registered their players by 31 August 2025, with registration starting on 1 August.
The teams that will be competing in Rwanda are APR FC, who will be in the CAF Champions League, and Rayon Sports, who will be in the CAF Confederations Cup.
There is still some question as to whether Rayon Sports will be able to qualify for the CAF Confederations Cup after reaching the group stages in 2018.
APR FC wants to reach the CAF Champions League groups, where it has clearly prepared, as if it has acquired strong players who will help it achieve this.
