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24 May 2023

FIFA president Gianni Infantino is expected to jet into the country to launch a special project that will help to close gaps between African football and the rest of the world.

FIFA regional director for Africa Gelson Fernandes told a media conference on Tuesday that Botswana Football Association (BFA) had a lot of potential, adding that FIFA would continue to support Botswana. BFA president, Maclean Letshwiti  said BFA was responsible for 17 regions and one of their biggest challenges was channelling resources to the remote areas.

He also spoke about  the women’s football league, saying they also ran a national league which they were currently working towards its  professionalisation and commercialisation.

“I think we are at the last stage, where the governance is done and dusted, and the marketing and commercialisation is on-going as well as the league and club development,” he said.

Letshwiti said that would make Botswana the third country in Southern Africa to have commercialised. He said the move  was in line with the FIFA vision that football must become a profession.

The president said BFA also operated six grassroots centres. He said more grassroots centres were needed as well as more funding for the centres.

He said there were 600 clubs in the regions, and 132 clubs were for women.

Letshwiti further  said there were  only 16 professional clubs and 24 in the first division and 223 youth teams.

“That give you a fierce size of the structures that we have to capacitate and make them very successful,” he said.  ENDS