04 Feb 2015

The world over, cities pride themselves with football teams plying their trade in top leagues.

Since football is viewed in some quarters as a religion, these cities take their teams seriously that everything often comes to a standstill on match days. Imagine the euphoria that often engulfs Manchester, in England when Manchester City and Manchester United meet.

In Johannesburg, South Africa, Orlando Pirates and Kaizer Chiefs often have their derby match tickets sold out within hours of selling. This is the same spirit often displayed in Botswana when Gaborone giants, Township Rollers and Gaborone United meet.

In Francistown, which is the country’s second city, there used to be an all-out war when Tafic met Tasc or Ecco City Greens. Only Ecco City Greens are in the premier league while former campaigners, Tafic, TASC and GNT fight it out in the First Division North dusty grounds, trying to earn the necessary points to regain entry to top flight football.

With Ecco hovering in the relegation zone in top league and with no hope that they would escape the dreaded relegation axe at the end of the season, Francistown is headed for a no show in the premier league. It will eventually rob football lovers an opportunity to mention the city in the same line as other world cities.

Taking a walk or a drive into the second city’s locations where football used to bring joy and solace to individuals from all works of life, one can sense that of recent, the rhythm has disappeared.

The euphoria that brought about heart stopping moments and adrenaline rush of the old good days when the city was famous because of the “boys in red”, Tafic, popularly known as Machimenyenga Boys are a thing of the past.

The team once prided itself with producing renowned players such as former national team player and midfield maestro, Mmoloki ‘Besto Bell’ Sechele, Matoni Mudzingwa, Nobody ‘Jomo’ Mosweu, Boitumelo Meriting, Carlos Tawana, Roy ‘Ninja’ Phiri, Leonard ‘Hero’ Matenge, Simbarashe ‘Rush Hour’ Rusike, Ace Phukula and the agile goalkeeper Pogiso ‘Wrist’ Mmusi.

As for Tango Boys, as Tasc are affectionately known by its legion of supporters, the least said, the better. The team is a struggling outfit in the first division, have lost support of the Botswana Defence Force who have been bankrolling it for years.

Their days of glory when they paraded players like Dickson Ndabambi, Mothusi Seditse, Langson Phiri, Boniface ‘Killer’ Mukhonde, the artistic Mareko ‘Des’ Pabalelo, Gary Mkandawire, Teenage Mpote are just nostalgia for their supporters.

As if that is not enough, Ecco City Greens, the only team that in history of Botswana football managed to bring the premier league title to the north of Dibete in 2008 is lurking in crocodile infested waters and seems likely to be a strong candidate for relegation.

Veteran national team soccer player and a former Tafic star, Phuthego Modipe has bemoaned the state of football in Francistown.

He stated in an interview that football is a way of life and both administrators, coaches, players, the business community and the supporters must come together and resuscitate their teams to glory days.

Modipe stressed that it is disheartening to see football collapsing in Francistown while they are big businesses in the city which should be encouraged to show their corporate social responsibility by injecting money into local teams.

He said a football club is expensive to run, stressing that players need to be taken care of in terms of their salaries, accommodation, complete training suites and medical bills and without this, some of the most talented players from Francistown have chosen to join other teams.

This, he said, has contributed to the decline in football standards, hence the relegation of premier league teams to lower divisions.

“Imagine what will happen if Ecco City Greens are relegated to first division, and neither Tafic, TASC nor GNT make it to the premier league, we will have no team in Francistown to celebrate and our newly built stadium will be underutilised or become a home ground for teams such as Nico United or Orapa United which are not from Francistown”, said Modipe.
Ecco City Greens die-hard supporter, Kangangwane Bongani expressed his distress at how things have turned out at his team and other Francistown outfits.

He stated that he has been a soccer fan from a tender age and he is amongst the few people who have seen the rise and fall of Francistown soccer clubs unfold before their eyes like a horror movie.

Bongani, however, attributed the fall of his team to the withdrawal of sponsors such as Botswana Meat Commission, and was quick to point out that a lot of team administrators do not want to accept change, stressing that football should be treated like a business not like a family entity.

He also said that its high time people realised that football, like culture, is dynamic and new ways of running clubs should be employed to achieve commercialisation. Bongani stressed that the only way his team can be successful is for it to be privatised rather than be run by a committee. 

Furthermore, 24 year old, Petagano Kenosi a supporter of TASC and a player in the constituency tournament stated that football today creates employment for a lot of people around the globe.

However, he stated that as an unemployed youth he found it attractive to play at the constituency league rather than at professional clubs, stressing that most teams in Francistown do not have money to pay their players, hence their failure to inject young and talented players into their squads.

He stressed that the latter contributes to Francistown teams, either trailing at the bottom of the league or struggling to survive in the first or second divisions. ends