04 Apr 2024

Minister of Youth, Gender, Sport and Culture says there is a need to protect integrity of football in Botswana.

Speaking at the launch of former football administrator, Ashford Mamelodi’s book, Protecting the Game in Gaborone on Wednesday, Tumiso Rakgare said there were some football leaders who were out to destroy football in the country adding that those should be called out. 

He said he was disappointed that some football administrators were not in football for the right reasons.  

“Some football administrators joined and acquired shareholding or teams for their selfish reasons. I wish to remind all of us here, that this football belongs to us,” he said.

Rakgare further pointed out that some people were protected by football leadership in the country, which he said was disappointing.

“I mean those who recently dragged our football before the court of law and are still recognised as football leaders. How on earth does this happen? We have people who fought some of our clubs through tooth and nail, fighting the whole institution to an extent of taking everything, all the tools, from the club,” he said. 

On the book, he said he was certain that it would bridge the history gap from the era of football founding fathers such as former vice president, Peter Mmusi, on whose foundations football had continued to grow from strength to strength.

In one of the chapters titled, Taking the Game to the People, Mamelodi writes about their mission of bringing organised football in far-flung places in Botswana.

According to him, football in those areas were disorganised, there were not competition rules and referees were volunteers with little or no training. ENDs