19 Dec 2019

Botswana Football Association (BFA) technical director has left after only a year.

Despite his short stint at the association, Serame Letsoaka leaves a good record having contributed immensely to the development of the game in Botswana.

After joining BFA, some football pundits termed Letsoaka an ‘apropos prescription by doctors’ and ‘the next Ben Koffie’ for the country’s football given his vast experience in the development of the game.

Again, his arrival in the country has seen tremendous improvement in grooming local coaches where about 60 of them were trained, developing referees and further setting up some development structures within the association.

At a press conference where he also bid the association farewell at Lekidi on December 18, his was a borrowed line from Frank Alile saying ‘goodbye does not mean the end. It only means that I will return or see you some other time. Take the sky, for example, the sun tells the sky goodbye when it gets dark only to return the next day once it is bright.’

As to why he was leaving BFA, Letsoaka said such was a wise move given that he was not spending enough time with the association while also doing other jobs for both CAF and FIFA.

“In my opinion, it was unfair to spend less time at the association and also get paid at the end of the month despite repeated absence doing other jobs for other associations,” he said.

His message for the association was also clear that it sustained grassroots development, saying ‘without grassroots then there is no how football can grow’.

Thus, he emphasised the need to engage more teachers in grassroots development because they interacted with students daily.

Nevertheless, his short stay in the country was not spared from challenges, and he opined that the school system hampered their efforts, arguing that most of the clubs in the country did not have development sides.

While many may deem his departure a huge blow to the development of the game, Letsoaka said he would be not lost to Botswana football.

His intent, he said was to frequent the country and continue to be a part of Botswana’s four-year development plan, all in effort to ensure that all was on track.

On the other hand, BFA chief executive officer, Mfolo Mfolo said Letsoaka’s good ethics had made him the great talent that he was who was able to work at any federation in the country, hence CAF and FIFA also sought his expertise.

“Where he is now he is big. For the past month I think he only spent seven days in Botswana. He was in Kigali engaged in collaboration of technical directors and secretary generals, then he went to Zambia for CAFB-license after, which he went to Zurich to review technical directors manual,” he said. ends