20 Jul 2016

The 2015/16 English Premier League has a winner in Leicester City, and so does the ABSA Premiership near home in South Africa in Mamelodi Sundowns.

In Spain, Barcelona were crowned La Liga champions for the 24th time. Even our little known Constituency League has winners.

Lo and behold, there is no winner in the multi-million Pula sponsored 2015/16 beMOBILE Premiership here at home.

And today, all fingers are pointing to the alleged poor administration and running of local football.

Not that the league’s 16 teams did not huff and puff across the width and breadth of the country to honour league fixtures as far as Jwaneng, Selebi Phikwe Francistown, Lobatse and Maun, with three of them ending up relegated.

It was the signing of one of Botswana’s hottest midfielders, Ofentse ‘Size 10’ Nato, by Gaborone West high flyers, Township Rollers, early this year that led to brouhaha in local top flight football.

Nato was signed after a six months stay at Atletico Kolkata in the Indian Premiership, and what followed will go down the annals of history as for the first time, the country’s top league failed to produce a clear winner, amidst findings and counter findings about Nato as a defaulter.

Fast forward to today. Yes, on this particular day, when other leagues around the world prepare for the start of a new season, there are still no league champions in Botswana except for two wannabes - Rollers and Mochudi Centre Chiefs.

The two sides pray day and night that sanity finally prevails in the head-honchos tasked with the administration of the pig-skin game.

It is common knowledge that local footballers, who are semi-professional, always look forward to the end of the season to indulge in various social pass timers, some gaining weight in the process and the sharpness they had eventually becoming blunt.

They usually struggle to get back into shape once the on-season starts and for them to be competitive in the 90 minute game needs rigorous work-out. 

Little money, save for a few who do earn like directors of companies from the well-off teams, is earned after a literal sweat, and they often look forward to crumbs coming as bonuses after the grand prize has been handed over at the end of the season to the championship winners.

As we write, the P1 million prize money is earning interest in some local bank awaiting one of the two sides, Magosi or  Popa Popa, as their fans affectionately call them, to lay claim with the players keeping on waiting for the crumbs.

But before they go on marching and laughing all the way to the bank, they have to play each other to determine the league winner, a game that should have long been played.

A last minute instruction by the Botswana National Sports Commission (BNSC), exercising their power as the absolute sport authority in the country saw the game penciled for June 15 discarded, giving precedence to the national team duty in the COSAFA game in Namibia.

If one thought it could not get worse than that, in a few weeks, the elections for President of the local football regulator, Botswana Football Association (BFA) will commence amid this dark cloud hovering over local football.

Perhaps, just maybe, by the time the elections commence, the game would have been played to usher in the league champions, who would have little time to celebrate their elongated wait to glory as the new season is just around the corner.

In the meantime, local football lovers continue to suffer from no league winners’ syndrome as they cannot brag about their favourite team being the league winner. Yes, where art thou league winners? Ends