01 Jan 2021

Botswana Football Association (BFA) president, Maclean Letshwiti, says the premier league is set to commence in February. In his December 29 statement, Letshwiti said all the leagues will be starting sometime around the first or second weeks of February next year. According to the statement, both the BFA and Botswana Premier League (BPL) are confident about making a return to the grounds since they have been building momentum gradually using promotional play-offs and national teams as a litmus test. "The COVID-19 pandemic has truly changed the way we do things, it has forced us to move our football season to become a February/November season," statement says.

The statement says BFA has set the wheels in motion to start all leagues to be in alignment with the FIFA, CAF and COSAFA calendars. The statement states that the Botswana football governing body has completed dry runs on how the leagues will resume and operate. "Since the outbreak of the Corona virus, we have also staged promotional play offs and they were all successful, without any teething problem," statement says It states that BFA intends to start Orange FA CUP semifinals this month and they will further engage with the health authorities for guidance. Statement notes that when offices open in January the association will be in constant communication with all the football structures and regions so they can seamlessly return to football
For his part, BPL Chairman Jack Dish Shah says everything is under control to resume premier league on February next month. He says clubs will have to abide by COVID-19 playing regulations adding that BPL will help teams with COVID-19 health protocols such as sanitizers, masks because most teams will not be financially stable by the time the league resumes. He says the BPL will ensure that the 2020/21 premier league season ends by October to pave a way for 2021/2022 season that will run as per the Botswana premier league original slot of August/May ends