31 May 2016

Botswana Football Association (BFA) is engaged in negotiations with Debswana to continue sponsoring the national first division leagues.

Debswana has sponsored the two streams of the second-tier league with P2 million per season for the past three years and the deal lapsed at the end of the 2015/16 season.

First division clubs have expressed concern whether the league will be able to find a new sponsor, but BFA president Tebogo Sebego said negotiations to clinch a new deal with Debswana are progressing well.

“Negotiations are going on and the company (Debswana) has assured us that it will not part ways with football,” Sebego told delegates of the First Division South (FDS) annual general meeting recently.

Sebego said the Debswana leadership had initially wanted assurances on the impact their sponsorship had brought on youth development and the overall development of football in Botswana before committing to a new deal. He said the mining and exploration company was now satisfied after BFA demonstrated the impact of the sponsorship.

“They are happy now and we have commenced negotiations,” Sebego said.

Each of the 24 first division clubs received a grant of P50, 000 per season under the previous sponsorship in a move that was designed to improve financial stability of teams. The first division leagues had run six seasons without a sponsor before the Debswana deal was unveiled in April 2013.  Ends