24 Sep 2017

The 2017/18 BTC Premiership champions will upon victory pocket a whooping P1.3 million, up from last season’s P1 million.

The managing director of Botswana Telecommunications Corporations Limited, Anthony Masunga  revealed this at the official launch of the BTC Premier League in Francistown on September 23.

In addition to the staggering prize money to be pocketed by winners, Masunga revealed that BTC had committed a historic sponsorship deal with the Botswana Premier League of a whooping P39 million for three seasons.

This, he highlighted, represented P13 million per season and a 38 per cent increase from their previous sponsorship of the league.

Additionally, he said, each of the league teams would receive a P35 000 monthly grant from BTC for eight months for team building capacity.

The man of the match incentives, he noted, had also been reviewed and a decision was taken to convert P1 000 airtime into cash and an extra P250 airtime for the man of the match recipient.

“We have been in partnership with the Botswana Premier League for the past nine years and this shows our company’s support for the betterment of local football. But I want it to be on record that the resources that the company is pouring into this league is not simply a donation, but that BTC will commercially benefit from the deal,” he said.

 BFA president, Mclean Letshwiti praised BTC for being a good partner of sports development.

Furthermore, he reiterated Masunga’s sentiments that football was now a big business that  sponsors associate with it hoped to reap rewards from.

He urged the media and the BPL to work together to make the 2017/18 premier league more interesting to the public and all stakeholders.

Botswana National Sports Commission (BNSC), Solly Reikeletseng stated that sports must  be commercialised and contribute to the country’s  GDP.

“It can take years and millions of money to market our country around the world but 90  minutes of football can do the same,” he said. ENDS