18 Jun 2014

The 2014 FIFA World Cup which started on June 12 in Brazil has brought more agony and sorrow for many Batswana.

Since June 11, the Multichoice office in Francistown has been inundated with high numbers of people who want to purchase decoders and those who want to subscribe for World Cup viewing.

As if that was not enough for the local football fanatics, the scheduling of the games has proven to be a nightmare, especially for those people who are working.

While teams have displayed great football on the pitch, the kick-off times for the games have proven to be a headache, especially midweek games some of which start at midnight while others kick-off at 3 a.m, an impossibility for many people who would have loved to watch.

This is due to the time differences between Botswana and Brazil. Botswana is five hours ahead of Brazil. The schedule does not favour Batswana who start work at 7:30 a.m and 8 a.m.

Some diehard football fanatics have vowed to stay awake all night and watch the games, but others do not think it is worth the sacrifice.

Thirty-seven-year-old Marumo Jonas, a cobbler, said in an interview that he was happy that the World Cup has started but complained about the time difference.

“Most of the kick-off times do not favour us, but there is nothing we can do. I personally do not have a problem with the 6pm slot because I believe most of the people would have knocked off,” he said. “We expected a lot from our national television, but unfortunately they decided not to show us the games.”

Zechariah Ntesang, a taxi driver, said that he had expected to watch the games on Botswana Television and his plea was for the national broadcaster to show the games for free in future because most Batswana are not able to subscribe to Multichoice.

On the time difference, he said they were okay because Africa was ahead of South America and there was nothing they could do. “Even when South Africa hosted the World Cup in 2010, we were enjoying the kick-off times which favoured us.”

Another taxi driver, Ishmael Nsendani explained that the scheduling of games at 6pm and 9pm was a challenge to him because he would still be at work serving his customers.

“It’s not easy to leave money for football,” he said. “Some of the games are played around three in the morning and we report to work while still feeling sleepy.”

He said he and some people met before the tournament started and tried to devise a way of providing big screens at public viewing areas for those who do not have access to Multichoice decoders but could not meet the council requirements. ends