09 Dec 2014

Botswana Premier League (BPL) is concerned that players who participate in Christmas tournaments risk their football careers. 

BPL chief executive officer, Bennett Mamelodi, said in interview this week that as the season goes for recess they expected players to take time off to rest, recover and rehabilitate themselves.

“Players are employees of different clubs, therefore, it is incumbent upon the clubs to put measures in place to ensure that they protect the welfare of their athletes in a professional manner,” he said.

Nonetheless, Mamelodi said he was aware that some players participated in Christmas tournaments for charity.  In that regard, he said, it depended on the agreement between a player and his employer.

“At the end of the day, if they go out of their professional work and give back to the community, when they get injured someone has to be liable, a community or club, it is something that has to be agree upon,” he said.

He said as BPL they encouraged clubs to come up with codes of conduct to guide the players on what was expected of them.  He added that if a club gave a player permission to play charity tournaments, then such club should accept liability were the player to get injured.

Mamelodi said as BPL they subscribed to international best practices, noting what Botswana players were doing “doesn’t happen in South Africa, it doesn’t happen in Europe”.

The BPL CEO said in other countries when the league goes for recess players go on holiday with their families given that football took up a lot of their quality time.

Therefore, Christmas was time for them to catch up with their loved ones. Mamelodi said as BPL the best they could do was to talk to clubs since they could not force players not to play outside the league structures. 

As such he said it was important for players to think hard about their careers before taking any decisions that could put their careers at risk. Also, he said there is nothing wrong for players to sponsor tournaments, because that was what most of players particularly in South Africa did as part of giving back to the community.

Gaborone United, communication’s manager, Kabelo Brown, said there was nothing in place to restrict players in such issues hence as management they always discourage them to indulge. 

Despite lack of regulations, Brown said a player who took part in tournaments not sanctioned by the club could be taken to task as per clubs code of conduct. “As our employee, we take care of them and surely we do not expect them to do anything that could jeopardise any chance of players to continue with their career” he said. ENDS