16 Oct 2013

It seems trouble is far from over at the women’s football league. The executive committee has put the league on hold due to the referees alleged boycot

However, the National Referees Commission has denied allegations that they boycotted games, revealing instead that the women football league committee halted the league at its own volition.

National Referees Commission chairman, Edwin Senai said in an interview that his office was informed that the games would be frozen for a while and as the referees, they complied because the fixtures were under the jurisdiction of the women football league. However, he agreed that referees had not been paid their allowances which he said was an issue that was being dealt.

Despite not having been paid, he said they had been in talks with the league committee to resolve this matter. Senai said they were waiting for the league committee to resume the games as the referees were willing to go back and officiate.

On the other hand, the women’s football league chairperson, Senki Sesinyi stood by his words, saying that the referees were the ones who boycotted the games. Sesinyi indicated that ever since the league commenced in September, the referees had never turned up for the games as they expressed grievances over lack of payment.

Therefore, he said they engaged the mother body, Botswana Football Association to help them source funds to pay referees as the league was running without a sponsor. The chairman highlighted that the referees would be paid through a vote from FIFA since they officiated in a league that fell under the FIFA development programme.

He revealed that the referees were paid P100 per game which he concurred was not enough since they had to transport themselves to the grounds. Moving forward, Sesinyi said they were in the process of sourcing sponsorship as it is difficult to run a league without funds. Ends