12 Oct 2020

A football expert Njabulo Gilika says the autonomy of Botswana Premier League was long overdue.

Speaking on the sidelines of Botswana Football Association Ordinary General Assembly on Saturday, he said the move would professionalise football and open opportunities for it to thrive.

Gilika, who is Jwaneng Galaxy Chairperson, said the precept allowed BFA to focus on core business, which is football development. Gilika’ comments comes after the general assembly granted the autonomy of BPL motion the green light.

He is of the view that commercialisation of football could only be made through BPL saying the autonomy meant that BPL could adopt a model, which they could use to run the league.

As an entity, he said BPL would be responsible for its business such as negotiating and soliciting for sponsorship.

He said sponsors would communicate directly to BPL, therefore creating a room for the entity to know the nuts and bolts of sponsorship requirements that allowed the game of football to thrive.

Further, Gilika said teams would be obligated to follow requirements of the model adopted, of which sponsors spelt out the sponsorship requirements to the teams that received sponsorship and failure to comply might lead to withdrawal of sponsorship. Standards that were required to comply with among others, include club licensing, he said.

He said clubs needed to have robust administration education saying the teams at club level should focus on youth development which would generate income for teams through selling players.

He said it was an advantage as some of these players could be roped in to the national team, adding that ‘we need to do proper assessment of foreign coaches hired for national duty’. ENDS