16 Jun 2016

 Botswana Football Association (BFA) has indefinitely postponed the Mochudi Centre Chiefs and Township Rollers playoff that was supposed to settle the feud over who is the 2015/16 beMOBILE Premiership champion. 

The match was set to be held at the National Stadium on Wednesday.

Rollers garnered a total of 70 points from 30 matches to finish top of the league but a spate of protests by four rival clubs over the eligibility of midfielder Ofentse Nato saw Mapalastina eventually docked seven points and relegated to second place behind Mochudi Centre Chiefs. The teams protested that Nato, who joined Rollers apparently as a free-agent in February, was a defaulter.

With Magosi edging out Rollers through soft points a playoff was organised to decide the champion, but Botswana National Sports Commission (BNSC) stepped in at the eleventh hour and ordered BFA to postpone the match. BNSC said Chiefs and Rollers players who are part of the Zebras should join the national team’s preparations for this weekend’s COSAFA Championships match in Namibia. 

“This communication wishes to announce the indefinite postponement of the playoff match between Mochudi Centre Chiefs and Township Rollers originally scheduled for today, Wednesday 15 June 2016. The postponement follows communication from the Botswana National Sports Commission (BNSC),” BFA chief executive officer Kitso Kemoeng confirmed through a statement to media.

Kemoeng said developments on the playoff will be communicated in due course, adding: “The Botswana Football Association regrets this late communication and any inconvenience caused to any party.” 

Chiefs’ public relations officer Clifford Mogomotsi said his team had no qualms with postponing of the match. He said Chiefs believe that the playoff was not necessary. “We respect instructions we are given by Botswana Football Association and Botswana Premier League because they are our principals. But at Chiefs we believe that the initial judgment (that Rollers should be docked points from matches against Police XI, Miscellaneous and Chiefs) was proper,” Mogomotsi said.

Concerning the lingering uncertainty over who is the real champion Mogomotsi said: “We are champions. 

We celebrated when we were given the trophy and medals and have internalised the fact that we are champions. 

But we are now awaiting the ruling from Court of Arbitration for Sports with abated breath,” he said.

Rollers public relations officer Bafana Pheto said they were disappointed by the sudden postponement of the match. “We are disappointed but there is nothing we can do. We were told at 12pm that the match was going to be postponed. 

We don’t know what is going on. This issue has been frustrating to us even during the season when Nato was wrongfully declared a defaulter,” Pheto said. ENDS