10 Feb 2014

After the dark clouds that covered the Kgalagadi south football league association for the past year, there is light at the end of the tunnel.

Kgalagadi south football association (KGASOFA) secretary, Kedibonye Sentlabane said they had been on negotiations with the chairperson for the women’s league, Sinki Sesinyi and the deal had been sealed, so they aimed to see the league starting this year for the first time in history.

She said so far they had registered eight teams and that registration was ongoing. She further said since it was the first time they were registering women’s teams in the Kgalagadi south region, they encouraged teams that wanted to register with the Botswana Football Association to first register with the register of societies so that they could have a proper name to operate with.

According to the secretary, they had secured a sponsorship from Sesinyi, who is also the sponsor for the Gaborone region and had previously sponsored the women’s tournament in Tsabong in preparation for this year’s league season.

The women football league started after the failure of the man’s league two years ago. KGASOFA chairperson, Tokyo Modise said the league collapsed due to financial constraints.

“Back in the days we used to play soccer for the love of it, but now-a-days there is a lot of money attached to football so due to lack of sponsorships we are not able to sustain teams in the league,” he said.

He further explained that players had to be taken care of, there had to be adequate training equipment like soccer boots, kits and sustainability allowances for players.

Modise noted that the last time the league was active was during the 2011-2012 season. He further explained that his committee met with team officials to find a way forward.

He said during their meeting with team officials, they were informed that teams had problems with players who abscond from training.

He said the committee has decided to meet all stakeholders and officially notify the BFA that they are quitting from the association because the league has failed to commence.

He confirmed that the BFA has tried everything it could to help them, but that nothing changed, hence the decision to focus only on youth development and the women’s league.

Modise dismissed allegations that the men’s football league collapsed because of constituency league, attributing the failure to lack of funds. ENDS