27 Jul 2014

Botswana Football Association (BFA) president, Tebogo Sebego has said the bonus that was recently allocated to FIFA member association would be used for developing football in Botswana.

Speaking at the BFA annual general assembly on July 26, Sebego said FIFA had allocated P6.6 million to Botswana. “A key consideration is that the BFA has found it prudent to invest the bonus primarily in football development that has been seriously lacking in Botswana,” he said.

This, he said, would be achieved through partnership with regional and zonal structures of the association. Sebego said P400 000 would be channeled to commercialisation at Lekidi, P4.4 million would go to BFA structures empowerment for football development and P1.8 Million would be used for BFA structures amongst others blocks and national leagues.

He said BFA structures were eligible to access the funds and must be proactive and draw plans on the intended projects as per the set criteria.

“This is critical to ensure ownership by the structures and to ensure sustainability of the projects, and the success of this initiative will rest on the leadership of the various structures,” he said.

The BFA president further said to safeguard a standardised, transparent and equitable application process, the BFA would facilitate a workshop for the structures, with the assistance of the world football governing body FIFA.

In other issues, Sebego said FIFA had resolved to standardise constitution of its member association, saying FIFA legal team visited the association recently to undertake the exercise in a seminar that was attended by members of the statutes committee and representatives from regions.

He said major challenges that were anticipated would include creation of special membership to accommodate partners such as Botswana Primary School Association, Botswana Integrated Sports Association, Botswana Tertiary Sports Association Players Union Botswana and possibly initiatives such as constituency tournaments.

He said the other challenge would be rationalisation of balance of power within structures of the BFA, aying this may lead to reduction of number of delegates send by regions to the annual general assembly.

Sebego further said FIFA had already sent a draft constitution for consideration by the BFA National Executive Committee for discussion by the relevant BFA structures and comment from general membership.

“I would appeal to members to look at this document with an open mind and make their objective comments, and it might be necessary for the BFA to hold a special assembly to discuss the revised constitution in order to meet expectation of FIFA,” he said.

On commercialisation of football, Sebego said it still remains an important agenda of the National Executive Committee, and in as much as they appreciate the continued grant by the government and the contribution by their sponsors, it was important for the association to augment this to become a commercially viable institution.

On the empowerment of Botswana Premier League, Sebego said it had become necessary for the association to embrace the developing trends and accord the BPL more powers to manage their affairs.

“To this end, consideration may be to form a legal entity that will run the premier league and pay a license fee to the association,” said Sebego.

He therefore pleaded with the assembly to embrace the idea of premier league being an independent entity from BFA as a way to grow football.

He therefore proposed that a committee chaired by the vice president-administration,

legal advisor and Botswana Premier League ,chairperson and chief executive officer, that will be charged with establishing the most effective way of undertaking the most effective way of undertaking the initiative and reporting to the NEC for recommendations to the assembly.

However, the proposal was fully supported by the general assembly therefore the committee is expected to commence its duties soon.

For his part, BFA CEO, Keith Maters said the past year had been a time of peaks and thoughts, success and disappointment.

He said the success were the completion of the commercialisation of Lekidi, the installation of the magnificent all weather surface pitch, courtesy of the FIFA Goal Project.

The biggest disappointment, he said was the cancellation of COASAFA Cup which was initially supposed to be staged in Botswana.

“We looked forward immensely to staging it, we felt it was a strong indication of the confidence in which the BFA is now being held in those high circles,” he said. ENDS