13 Jul 2020

The Botswana Football Association (BFA) has appointed a committee that will determine how the promotional play-offs and Orange FA cup will be brought to closure.

Recently the association ended the premier league by crowning Jwaneng Galaxy as the champion because they were leading the log standings before the extreme social distancing.

A press release from BFA says that the committee was also tasked to determine how the play-offs and Orange FA cup games would be tackled, taking the COVID-19 protocols into consideration.

It says the committee will also look into the cost implications for holding the promotional playoffs, given that there are 17 teams divided into four blocks of four teams each, save for the Southern block which has five teams.

The release says in each block in Eastern, Northern, Southern and Western, only one team is promoted to the National First Division.

Two teams from First Division North and South will be fighting for one slot for promotion to the elite league.

The committee is also expected to come up with modalities of how the Orange FA Cup, which was halted at quarterfinals stage, would be played.

Football analyst Kagiso Rantswaneng, said he had expected BFA to first guide how equity will be attained at all the other leagues on its structures wherein some teams have played more games than others.

He said this would have given BFA reprieve that teams got a chance and still failed to improve their statuses.

Rantswaneng said football followers were eager to see how the implementation of the decision will happen.

“I still remember again that the decision was based on a thorough soul searching report, which proved the non-practicality of completing the respective leagues, as it was going to cost the BFA an arm and a leg,” he said.

He said 36 playoff games would use the same dusty pitches as the recreational games and possibly use the minimum of interventions similarly, which is why he believes that the leagues should or could have been left to complete. ENDS