12 Sep 2018

The old stadium in Francistown will not be available when Debswana first division north league season starts on September 16.

The Francistown City Council stadium has been undergoing maintenance that includes installation of an automated irrigation system on the football pitch.

Therefore, it will not be available to host one of the first league games between Calendar Stars and Green Lovers Football Club. 

The council’s chief architecture and building services officer,  Gofentsemang Chabana, confirmed to BOPA that it will be impossible to use the stadium when the league starts.

She said installation of the automated irrigation, will be followed by the top dressing of manure for the lawn to recover and it will only be after September 30 that the stadium could host the league. 

Initially, there was no timeline in place as to when the stadium will be ready for use, leaving an element of uncertainty over when the maintenance will be finished and when the stadium will be available to host the league. 

Meanwhile, Debswana First Division North secretary general, Rapula Gaotlhobogwe said in an interview that they were aware of the maintenance of the pitch. 

He said there was a possibility that the encounter between Calendar Stars and Green Lovers Football Club may be moved to the new Francistown Stadium to launch the league.

He said this means that the host team will have to part with P500 to pay for the stadium.

He stated that the game might be televised as per the Baboneng Film Productions deal to broadcast national first division team games.

Gaotlhobogwe further explained that if there were costs to play at the new stadium, they would have to negotiate for a certain percentage from gate takings to be paid for using the facility.

He said for other games, teams will have to shop around because games that were supposed to be played at the stadium will have to be relocated to other grounds in and outside Francistown.

Available options in this case, he said, were Tati Siding, Tonota as well as Botho University.  

Gaotlhobogwe said they had already communicated with teams’ representatives about the situation and also appealed to teams to find alternative grounds. ENDS