28 Nov 2017

Botswana Football Association (BFA) in collaboration with Germany has embarked on a project to develop football in Botswana.

Recently there was brainstorming session between BFA management and Germany represantatives.

Speaking at a press conference and handing over of football equipment to BFA by Germany at Lekidi on Monday, BFA president, Maclean Letshwiti explained that through Botswana National Olympic Committee, BFA approached Germany with the long term development plan with intention to be assisted with an expert.

He said Germany responded that they would not send an expert without knowing the state of BFA but opted to send Christoph Rocholl to do a situational analysis of Botswana football before they could offer their support.

Letshwiti stated that Rocholl had been in Botswana for two months, but managed to travel to 14 regions out of 17 and had already compiled his findings.

He said the long term football development plan was triggered by the fact that Botswana celebrated 51 years of independence but BFA had nothing to show saying that got management thinking.

Letshwiti noted that the plan had major focal areas including grassroots development, youth development and coach education adding that the biggest challenge experienced by BFA was lack of expertise for monitoring and evaluation of projects thus explains BFA’s choice of assistance being Germany for their robust system.

He explained that the project marked the rebirth of football development in Botswana and should be treated with such importance.

Deputy head of mission at the German embassy Katja Nolte explained that Germany had always taken football as a serious business.

She said she had observed that Botswana had a lot of passion about football , explaining however  that passion alone could not take football anywhere saying it could do with a little of organisation and support to finally be able to compete on international level.

Rocholl was previously engaged by countries such as Costa Rica and Hondurus and managed to set up their robust U-15 which ultimately qualified for World Cup.

He explained that the two months of travelling around Botswana and studying which just came to end had been amazing.

He said they had the overview of the study and came to the final results that the project could be recommended to Botswana.

Furthermore he pointed out that he had developed a good relation with the president during the travelling adding that he was hopeful about the project. BOPA