The Government will have to pay Irish coach Johnny Bryan McKinstry over Rwf194 million over unsettled remunerations.

McKinstry parted ways with Rwanda’s national team Amavubi (The Wasps) in 2016 after a string of poor results and failure to guide the team to the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations which was hosted in Gabon. This was a few days after the country renewed his contract for another two years, which was supposed to end by 2018.

Afterwards, McKinstry filed his case with the world football governing body (Fifa) to intervene and in May last year, FIFA ruled in his favour.

However, Rwanda’s Football Federation (Ferwafa) filed an appeal against the ruling to pay him a total of over Rwf175 million for unlawful dismissal, but lost the case, and now the money has accumulated to over Rwf194 million.

In a letter from Fifa to Ferwafa, Rwanda was given up to April 25, as the deadline for settling the outstanding payment, which could be increased with additional arrears.

“We got the letter ordering us to settle his payment by April 25,” said François Régis Uwayezu, the secretary-general of Ferwafa, adding that the money could increase due to the penalties.

According to Ferwafa, the letter came in on March 28 with a grace period of 30 days. However, Uwayezu said the Ministry of Sport and Culture was McKinstry’s chief employer and are subject to settle his compensation.

As per Fifa rules, should the federation fail to pay the amount, then Rwanda could be banned from all Fifa competitions. However, with only a few days left, officials from the sport ministry said negotiations are ongoing.

“Negotiations are ongoing and any development will be communicated,” said Guy Rurangwayire, the national teams’ supervisor at the Ministry of Sport and Culture.

During his 16 months in charge of Amavubi, McKinstry led them to the quarter-finals of the 2016 Africa Nations Championship and to the final of the 2015 Cecafa Senior Challenge Cup, where they lost to Uganda.