How I Took on the Adil Licence Saga: Inside Operation Adil 2022

In 2022, when Mohammed Adil Erradi was in his second season at APR FC, I had also just joined Radio & TV10. At the time, I had information that Adil did not have the required coaching licence to coach in CAF competitions.

Even though this man did not have the required licence, it was not because Rwanda’s sports media did not know about it. It was more a matter of — as they say — “where the dollar hits, things become easier.”

Later, I approached my colleague Kazungu Claver and asked him:

“Claver, how do we explain the fact that APR FC repeatedly finds itself without an eligible coach in CAF competitions, forcing the coach to sit in the stands during matches?”

Kazungu replied:

“No journalist has ever investigated this. If you decide to pursue it, go ahead, but be prepared. You will be going up against a large group of your colleagues who do not want this information to come out.”

I immediately assured Kazungu that I might struggle when it comes to entering a battle for evidence, but once I enter that battle, I make sure I see it through.

That is how I began the fight to tell Rwandan football fans that APR FC was being disadvantaged in CAF competitions, while people were being made to believe that their coach had the necessary licence, when CAF did not recognise it that way.

There were even matches that he coached, and it appeared that APR FC had appealed to the CAF Secretariat, asking that the situation not happen again.

At that time, I faced a major challenge in what I called “OPERATION ADIL 2022.” There were nights when I slept for only three hours because I spent the rest of the night online searching for every piece of information I could find about Adil.

I finished Part One thinking the matter was over and that I had won.

Then one morning, Kazungu came to me and said:

“Mkude, have you heard that a document has been released contradicting what you reported?”

I replied:

“Spokesperson, stay calm. Everyone who published that licence received the same document, and they were using a scanned copy. That licence did not meet the required standards, and it had been produced in Biryogo.”

We then went into the 10 Sports programme, where I warned the audience that the following day I would bring them Part Two.

For Part Two, I travelled to Belgium and spoke with the senior official who signs all the licences issued. He gave me a list of all the coaches he had trained and told me how many weeks Adil still had to study before obtaining the licence that would allow him to coach at the elite level