20 Mar 2016

Township Rollers attorney, Kgosietsile Ngakaagae, has requested Botswana Premier League disciplinary committee (BPL DC) to fine Mochudi Centre Chiefs for wasting Rollers and the committee’s time.

Chiefs lodged a protest that Rollers’ Terence Mandaza and Ofentse Nato were  defaulters, therefore they were not eligible to play in a Mascom Top 8 clash between the two sides.

Centre Chiefs pleaded with the BPL DC to order the BPL secretariat to furnish them with all Township Rollers’ registered players reflecting their ages.

However, Ngakaagae said Chiefs request was disruptive and made DC to convene purely to help them with a “fishing expedition”.

The DC, he said, should not be abused, in a matter that Chiefs were doing, adding that alone constituted harassment of the other teams and psychological warfare on other teams to keep them disrupted from the premier league.

He said because of the frivolity, and irrelevance, this would be an appropriate case where the BPL DC should  come heavily against Mochudi Centre Chiefs.

“The other parties have left their business in their offices including the panel just to hear Mochudi Centre Chiefs. And Chiefs boldly say they cannot tell us why they want the 2015-2016 Township Rollers match sheet and all the registered players reflecting their ages, “he said.

Furthermore, Ngakaagae applied that Mochudi Centre Chiefs pay costs of the case so that they learn to stop harassing other teams with protests.

He said the conduct of Centre Chiefs warranted that they should be reminded that football should be played and won in the field of play .

“We end by saying Mochudi Centre Chiefs should be punished for this kind of application, and this one in particular, by being made to pay cost to be fixed by this disciplinary panel and their whole case should be dismissed, “he said.

However, Mochudi Centre Chiefs representative, Clifford Mogomotsi, said  the reason they wanted  all the match sheets and Township Rollers’ registered players reflecting their ages was that they believed Rollers had exhausted their quota as per  Botswana Play Rules and Regulations article 6.1.4 which stipulated that ‘a defaulter is a player who is registered after any of the stipulated quotas have been exhausted’.

He said according to article 2.3 ‘a club shall be allowed to register up to 25 players at any given time for its main team. Clubs required to maintain junior teams shall be allowed to register up to 25 players under the respective age category over and above those registered for the main team”.

The article further stipulated that should a club wish to use a player registered with any of its junior teams in its main team, the club shall first register the player as a member of its main team provided that such registration observed the quota of 30 players.

It said for purpose of the play rules “junior team” shall be teams that consisted of players of up to 17 years of age.

Therefore Mogomotsi said the documents would help them in  arguing their case against Township Rollers.

The BPL DC, ordered BPL secretariat to give Mochudi Centre Chiefs  a list of registered Township Rollers players reflecting their ages, adding the documents should be produced by BPL by March 18.

The case would be heard on Wednesday. Ends