17 Jun 2013

Botswana Chess Federation (BCF) is hopeful that it will secure a sponsorship to start the first ever chess league.

The BCF’s public relations director, Keenese Katisenge said this during a one-day clubs workshop in Mogoditshane. The meeting aimed at ensuring that clubs comply with the Registrar of Societies requirements.

Katisenge said BCF was optimistic that soon it would find a sponsorship as the federation was negotiating with various companies to sponsor the league. She said National Development Bank (NDB) would continue sponsoring various chess tournaments,  adding that for the past three years, the bank sponsored the tournaments to the tune of P50 000.

Kgosietsile Tsayang of the Registrar of Societies told over 20 participants about the importance of submitting annual returns to avoid de-registration. However, he explained that chess and football clubs were the only two best sports codes that paid their annual returns.

Tsayang further explained that for the past three years, various clubs had not been submitting their annual returns and the Registrar of Societies intended taking action against them. He said annual returns must be paid by the end of every financial year adding that school chess clubs that were affiliated to the BCF should also be registered with the Registrar of Societies.

For his part, the Botswana Volleyball Federation vice president technical George Keotsene explained that the federation had introduced an electronic registration system of players, coaches and referees. 

He said the system worked well because the federation had never encountered any mistakes of fake players, referees and coaches and with the new system, such people could easily be detected and action taken.

Mr Keotsene also encouraged various sports codes to up-date their sponsors of any activity they undertook adding that the federation had four sponsors including the league sponsor, Mascom. He also appealed to various sports codes to submit their annual returns to avoid de-registration. ENDS