24 Aug 2014

The issue of football clubs failing to release players for the national association teams is nothing new and it is far from over.

Most national football associations worldwide face the same kind of problem and of recent the matter has been snowballing at Botswana Football Association (BFA).

The issue exists mostly between associations and foreign clubs. Since Botswana started their 2015 AFCON qualifiers, some foreign clubs have failed to release players for the national team call up.

The South African based Bloemfontein Celtic has in the past four games refused to release the duo of Joel Mogorosi and Mogogi Gabonamong. All the games were played outside the FIFA calendar and they were not obliged to release the players.

 Zebras head coach Peter “PJ” Butler has since made an effort to plead personally and talk down the Celtic coach Ernst Middendorp to release players but his efforts were fruitless. Reports from the BFA indicated that the coach has insistently refused to release players because he was using them for season preparation.

The same challenge did not only befall BFA but Football Association of Malawi (FAM) has dealt with the same thing after Celtic refused to release their two players, Limbikani Mzava and Gabadihnou Mhango during their recent AFCON qualifier against Benin.

In addition South African Football Association encountered the same problem when Middendorp refused to allow Tshepo Chaine to travel with the SA Under-20 side to Cameroon for a 2015 African Youth Championship qualifier last month.

The game was also not played on days designated by FIFA for international matches.

On August 20, the Zebras faced Angola in a friendly match played outside the FIFA calendar and the same issue persisted because the German coach did not release the players.

In an interview prior to the game, the technical director of BFA Benny Kgomela said they could not use the Celtic duo because the coach had once again refused to release Mogogi and Mogorosi. He said there was nothing they could do about it.

“We can’t appeal yet because the game is played outside the FIFA calendar and we will take further action if the club doesn’t release players for the upcoming group stage AFCON qualifiers,” he said.

Kgomela said Celtic had released a statement affirming that they would release players in the upcoming qualifiers because the games would be played under the calendar. “Right now there is nothing we can do, we will stick to what we have,” he said.

According to FIFA Regulations on the Status and Transfer of Players, Article 1.2 states that the release of players is mandatory for matches on dates listed in the coordinated international match calendar and for all matches for which a duty to release players exists on the basis of a special decision by the FIFA Executive Committee. Article 2.3 further indicates that it is not compulsory to release players for matches scheduled on dates not listed in the coordinated international match calendar.

However in some situations players can be released in good faith after some good negotiation terms between the coaches. Platinum Stars among others has been releasing their players to honour some games outside the FIFA calendar but that has not been the case with Celtic.

In some circumstances players often get injured during international matches therefore clubs are the ones responsible for the welfare of the players and they pay for medical finances. In the same regulations, Article 2.1 states that clubs releasing a player in accordance with the provisions of the annexe are not entitled to financial compensation.

Therefore some clubs have often looked at this technicality and they choose not to release players to avoid risking injuries in games scheduled outside the FIFA calendar.

Furthermore, the CEO of Botswana Premier League Bennett Mamelodi said they had suspended league games well in time to cater for international matches. He said they have already paved way for the Zebras’s group stage AFCON qualifiers because BFA has communicated with them about the international games which fall steeply under the FIFA calendar.

BFA on the other side started scheduling friendly games in-between FIFA dates for the Zebras since Butler was appointed earlier this year. Butler who swore to commit to development upon appointment has been using the games as an opportunity to test and give young players exposure.

Perhaps clubs should at one point sympathize with Southern African national teams because there is no tournament like COSAFA where players are given exposure.

Because it is difficult to play a friendly match against bigger teams, teams like Botswana play friendly games outside FIFA calendar to test players and various combinations.

What has proven to be the case in all situations is that there is often a lack of good communication between the involved entities.

Moreover, football is governed by rules and guidelines stipulated by the main governing body FIFA and anything done against those rules is unaccepted or not condoned.

Despite negotiations and personal persuasion between clubs and associations, all in all the rules and regulations settles everything.

Some clubs only serve their interests and thus exercise the FIFA rules to stop a player from representing his country while some come to terms with plea from national associations and in the end release players. ENDS