{"id":38314,"date":"2026-06-29T13:14:20","date_gmt":"2026-06-29T11:14:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=38314"},"modified":"2026-06-29T13:14:20","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T11:14:20","slug":"rwandan-basketball-federation-bans-two-top-players-for-skipping-national-duty","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/rwandan-basketball-federation-bans-two-top-players-for-skipping-national-duty\/","title":{"rendered":"Rwandan basketball federation bans two top players for skipping national duty"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Rwanda Basketball Federation, FERWABA, has handed a one-year suspension to players Ntore Habimana and Axel Olenga Mpoyo for failing to show up for international duty.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Both players, who line up for local club APR, were penalised after ignoring a recent call-up to the national squad. According to a federation statement, representing the country is a mandatory obligation that carries unparalleled prestige over local club fixtures.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>FERWABA confirmed that the disciplinary action follows a regulation passed during its December 2025 General Assembly. Under these rules, if a club clears a player for release, failing to report to the national team without an approved excuse results in an automatic 12-month ban.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;ChannelAfrica&#8211;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":32367,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[20],"class_list":["post-38314","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-sport","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Rwandan basketball stars suspended for skipping national team call up","published_date":"2026-06-29 13:12:57","news_description":"Rwandan basketball stars suspended for skipping national team call up","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/38314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/38314\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38315,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/38314\/revisions\/38315"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32367"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=38314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}