Curruption season
will surely be pockets of rewards and kick backs to lieutenants as well as foot soldiers who have campaigned and served diligently.
The winner will be expected to enjoy the spoils of war while the loser will be languishing in the agony of defeat. After all, football administration is not an environment for saints or nice guys, it’s an environment where only apex predators thrive and slithering serpents nest. A cowardly sissy will be quicklyexposed and swallowed whole inthis highstakes environment. For decades, football has been rotting from the top. FIFA was one of the most corrupt sport organisation under the disgraced former president Sepp Blatter and this behaviour trickled down to affiliate FA’s across the world. It took highly skilled international law enforcement agencies and crime busters like the notorious FBI to finally take down the likes of Blatter and his cronies after decades of systematic corruption on a global scale.
It wasn’t until the current president, Gianni Infantino took over the reins that the advent of high level corruption was reduced in world football. Nevertheless, this sort of evil would take years to root out and be completely eradicated.
The sad part of such corruption in football structures is that it trickles down to disenfranchised children who dream of changing their circumstances through football. This brings us to the BFA election this weekend. It is only with hope and fate that delegates will go out and do what is right and choose the best people for BFA executive positions. These individuals will be in office for close to half a decade and it is with hope that the right people will be elected and Botswana Football will finally be exorcised from this patina of failure, mediocrity and corruption tendencies. Whoever is given the next mandate at BFA should look into their conscience and discard this habit kick backs and personal gain. It is only with transparency, accountability and vision that shackles binding Botswana Football will be broken and see local football reaching the heights of more successful and elite foreign leagues.
It is only with accountability, good governance, competency and a clear conscience that Botswana will once against qualify for the next Africa Cup of nations or even the world cup. When going into the voting booth this weekend, BFA delegates should be cognisant of that barefooted boy or girl in some obscure rural part of Botswana whose only hope is excelling at football to break the generational poverty curse in the family. Corruption, incompetence and self interest will not help Botswana to discover 10 or 20 other players like Mogakolodi ‘ Tsotso’ Ngele or Thatayaone ‘ TT’ Ditlhokwe. When they go out to vote with their conscience and not their pockets , delegates will actually save lives and help children across the country to better their lives through the beautiful game.
It will only be apparent on Saturday that what outcome the virtual voting will have on the outcome of the elections but it is with hope that it will be for the better. When it is all said and done and the dust has settled , we look for a flicker of hope on the horizon. It is at this historic and crucial times like this that the immortal words of Marc Antony ( from Julius Caesar) ring true, “The evil that man do lives after them. The good is often interred with their bones.”