04 Apr 2013

Unhappiness is mounting in the Young Zebras camp and it threatens to spoil whatever chances of success the team may have at the 2013 African U-17 Championships.

Botswana reached the championship finals hosted by Morocco later this month after sterling performances against Malawi, Rwanda and Algeria in the qualifying rounds last year.

Head coach, Kagiso Kobedi would have liked his charges, captained by promising young midfielder Tshotlhe Leshetla, to go to the tournament and impress.

But ahead of the team’s departure for the tournament on April 3, Kobedi was left baffled by poor preparations on and off the pitch, which he feared would affect his team's chances in the continental youth extravaganza starting April 13.

“Our preparations were not spot on. We had devised a training plan but were unable to follow it because we started our camp late. We were supposed to start our camp on the 11th of January but it was delayed by six weeks. That caused us to speed our preparations and we ended up omitting some aspects of our training programme,” the former Mochudi Centre Chiefs coach told the media before the team departed on Wednesday.

But his biggest anger was aimed at the Botswana Football Association (BFA) national executive committee, especially the president, Tebogo Sebego for disrupting harmony in the technical team ahead of the crucial competition.

BFA allegedly caused discontent in the camp when it replaced the team’s welfare manager, Rapelang Tsatsilebe by Ramocha Tsieng without the technical team’s knowledge. The move was made more surprising by the fact that even the association’s technical director, Sonnyboy Sethibe was not consulted before the changes were effected.

Another issue of concern to the coach was the fact that BFA decided to reduce the number of the technical team from 10 to seven before the team left for Morocco. That meant the physical trainer and physiotherapist remained behind, something that irked the coach because he felt the two were critical to the team.

“Those guys played a crucial role in preparing the team. The support we received from them was very good. The turning point in our preparations was when the technical team was dismantled without our consent. We have been crippled,” cried Kobedi.

Sethibe admitted that he was not consulted when BFA effected the changes. He also stated that Tsatsilebe had done a sterling job before he was replaced. He also agreed with the coach that it would have been better if the physical trainer and physiotherapist had accompanied the team to Morocco.

“It is standard practice to have a lot of specialists in the technical team nowadays,” said Sethibe.

When responding to the coach’s concerns, Sebego said NEC had the prerogative to effect changes to the technical team where it saw fit. He stated that the welfare manager was changed in an attempt to bring a person who would deliver to the association’s expectations. He did not point out where Tsatsilebe had failed.

“The decision to change a welfare manager is an appropriate one which is also justified. We are not apologetic about it and we do not regret it,” said Sebego.

The BFA president also explained that the physical trainer and physiotherapist were not taken along because of lack of funds. ENDS