22 Aug 2021

Five football clubs have been denied licences to participate in the Botswana Football League (BFL) by BFA Club Licensing First Instance Body, while 11 were successful.

The five clubs are Extension Gunners, Gilport Lions, Mahalapye Railway Highlanders, Mogoditshane Fighters and Notwane.

The judging criteria was focused on sporting, infrastructure, administration, personnel, legal as well as financial issues.

Under sporting, the emphasis was on coaching licence and players should be furnished with written contracts.

Stadium lease agreement was aslo needed under infrastructure, medical doctor and physiotherapist contract for administration and personnel, proof of submission of annual returns with the registrar of societies under legal and on financial, audit report, overdue payables, qualified finance officer and filing of independent financial audit report were taken into consideration.

Communication from BFA stated that the licensing system was aimed at safeguarding the credibility and integrity of club competitions, adding that through club licensing, the BFA intended to improve the level of professionalism.

Speaking in an interviews on Thursday, Extension Gunners’ spokesperson, Oarabile Kgosiesele, said they were denied licensing due to overdue payables and physiotherapist’s questionable qualifications.

He highlighted that the club had outstanding payment issues with two former coaches, adding however, that they had already reached an agreement with one to give consent for the club to be granted licence.

The other coach, Kgosiesele said, requested to be paid before he could give consent for licensing.

“We are working round the clock to raise the money. We appeal to Gunners community to assist,” he added.

He said they had already resolved the physiotherapist’s qualifications issue by roping in someone with the required level of qualifications.

He assured supporters that all the challenges that led to the club being denied licensing would be addressed, adding that the ‘Gunners community should rest assured that their club would compete in 2021/22 BPL’. ENDS