24 Jan 2018

Botswana Football Association chief executive officer, Mfolwe Mfolwe has expressed concern at the imbalance in football between the Southern and the Northern part of the country.

He echoed the sentiments when addressing a meeting of Debswana First Division North club officials to evaluate the just ended first round.

Mfolwe highlighted that he was worried by the state of football in the north, noting that Tafic should not be allowed to relegate as it was the only team in the premiership.

“This imbalance is reflected by the many premier league teams in the South and a few in the North,” he added. He added that the situation was not helped by management instability amongst the teams, including at Tafic.

The BFA CEO explained that the mayor of Francistown was supportive of football growth in the city and was always willing to assist where possible.

However, he was worried by the low participation of women in the leadership of clubs, regional committee and as referees.

Consequently, he maintained that success at any organisation was based on strategy and deliverable targets.

He said what the BFA did should trickle down and be reflected in the regions and clubs. In addition, he decried the indiscipline portrayed by club officials and promised that decisive action would be taken against those who find themselves on the wrong side of the law.

“There are those who are in the habit of going to radio stations to attack regional committees without following due process and we want this behaviour to stop immediately,” he cautioned.

He also informed the gathering that there should be people learning and growth in the leadership of the first division north and urged club officials to also capacitate themselves to deal with leadership challenges.

Furthermore, he explained that the leadership should also be involved in resource mobilisation and asserted that this would help to build a strong football management team.

On other issues, he informed club officials that club licensing for premiership clubs had been done and said that next year they would focus on licensing first division clubs.

Mfolwe also talked about the identity of clubs in Botswana noting that professionalism had proven to be a challenge because of the different models pursued by clubs, which was not standard.

He said that the hybrid model of societies and companies had given a lot of clubs a headache and caused conflicts.

He also urged clubs to start preparing their financial statements so that their cash flow could be tracked. This, he noted, would make it easy for their clubs to be valued.

For his part, the Debswana First Division North chairperson, Mpenzeni Sambandawe informed the club officials that the meeting was called to evaluate the first round and plan how they would approach the second round which begins on January 27.

He also noted that he was pleased that most of the club officials were young people, mentioning that they would bring a new perspective to football management.

Sambandawe raised concern on people who were mobilising referees to boycott games,saying this was a sign that some officials were not interested in the growth of the game.

The chairperson mentioned that his mission was to correct the administrative wrongs which were bedeviling football in the first division. However, he asserted that he could not achieve this without the support of clubs. He urged club officials to own up to the fixtures that had been drawn up as a collective.

He praised teams because there were few protests in the first round, adding that the few cases that were there were disposed quickly.

“We are getting into a competitive period of the league where the blame game will be heaped on the league’s administrators,” he added.

Sambandawe noted that clubs in the Debswana first division north got promoted and relegated in the following season due to lack of support from the region.

He encouraged clubs to do away with negativity in order to achieve better results. Furthermore, he highlighted that club officials should acquaint themselves with the play rules and regulations.

He also impressed on clubs to adhere to strict governance and accountability protocols, noting that the disbursement of grants was delayed because the sponsorship committee raised accountability red flags.

Going forward, he explained that teams would be provided with first aid kits and stretchers due to safety concerns raised by the sponsor.

He also called for role clarity among club officials and decried the unprofessional behavior displayed by some officials during games which tarnished the name of the  league. ENDS