18 Jan 2017

Botswana Football Association (BFA)  and British Council have signed a Memorandum of Agreement meant to develop community coaching, and equip youth with life skills through their Premier Skills development.

Speaking at the signing ceremony, British Council country director for Botswana, Nobantu Kalake said British Council was re-newing their partnership although not enough was done in the past to effectively tell the story of the partnership.

She said not enough was said to inform people as to what the programmes was all about, and what it was capable of doing.

She said Premier Skills was a collaborative project between the English Premier League and the British Council.

The project, she said combines the reach of the British Council with more than 110 countries with the global appeal of the English Premier League to use football to give young people around the world a brighter future, to address marginalisation and to reach out to the vulnerable.

She said the project was initiated in 2007 and 29 countries were selected while the launch in Botswana was in 2009, and that's when Botswana joined countries like Cameroon, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Morocco, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Sudan, Tunisia, Uganda and Zambia as a beneficiary.

“As football enthusiasts you know the state of football in this country, and there is nothing that could have stopped Botswana to have reached the same standards with the other countries which are excelling in football,” she said.

Kalake, however said not all was lost because all football stakeholders had an opportunity to pick up the pieces and move on.

In other issues, she said the initial focus on the project was to develop community coaching, referees and equipping them with skills to enhance them with football based community project, for the benefit of the youth, women, the marginalised and the vulnerable

She said the programme also aims at imparting English language skills, given that football is international and it facilitate global interaction.

BFA president, Maclean Letshwiti said football had evolved because there were no minnows, adding that countries that had a robust development programmes were the one's competing at AFCON and World Cup.

Letshwiti said British Council's gesture was appreciated because it was what BFA needed to carry its development project. ENDS