10 Nov 2015

Botswana Football Association (BFA) chief executive officer, Kitso Kemoeng says buying match tickets late and arriving at the stadium on last minute is of “great concern to the association.”

Kemoeng revealed this during a press conference in Francistown on the upcoming game between Botswana and Mali – the first of the two legged  encounter of the FIFA Russia 2018 World Cup qualifiers.

The BFA boss appealed for support from Batswana and urged them to continue rallying behind their team as they did in the past two games in the country’s second city. He said the main concern was that the public always left it to late before buying tickets. As of Sunday,  he said only 5 669 tickets were sold as opposed to 26 000. Kemoeng appealed to the public to buy match tickets at designated sale points for security purposes.

He also lamented that there was still another area of concern whereby parents come to the stadium with children who are supposed to pay but choose not to pay for those children and they end up occupying seats they had not paid for thereby disadvantaging other people. 

The BFA chief executive officer also appealed to the supporters not to invade the pitch despite their excitement as that might attract unnecessary punishment and possible docking of points.

For their part, Botswana Police Service representative, District Traffic Officer Superintendent Alison Mbaiwa urged spectators to adhere to the rules and regulations. He said motorists should pack their vehicles inside the stadium as it has a parking capacity of around 1300 cars. 

Furthermore, he said they would not allow motorists to pack their vehicles outside the stadium as that leads to break-ins and theft and also accumulates a charge.

He noted that those who would park on the eastern side would be directed to go through Monarch when the game ends to normalise the traffic congestion in A3 road. 

Supt Mbaiwa said people parked on the western side would be let out only after match officials and teams have left the stadium.

Local organizing chairperson, Eatametse Olopeng said the gates open at 930 am while the game is scheduled to start at 4 pm on Saturday.

He also raised concern about the purchasing of tickets late, adding that police sometimes are called to normalise the situation at the tickets point of sale, especially at Shoprite.

Olopeng said late coming by supporters has also resulted in unnecessary pushing and shoving in the long queues.

Francistown Zebras Supporter’s club chairperson,  Raoboy Mpuang said they intend providing 50 marshals to beef-up security.

He said they have organised an all-night festival on Friday at BDF Area S, where Dr Vomit and Mc Maswe are expected to perform as a way to pick and boost Zebras supporters’ morale and they chose BDF venue for security reasons.

Mpuang said they wanted to have a motorcade but looking at the already traffic congestions in the city, they cancelled it.

Zebras proceeded to the second round of the FIFA Russia 2018 World Cup qualifiers with a 5-1 aggregate win over Eritrea and the winner between Zebras and Mali will qualify for the group stages.  

Mali is expected to arrive tomorrow and both teams will leave immediately after the game heading to Mali for a second leg to be played on November, 17. Ends