Broke BNSC treads carefully
their annual grants were cut last year due to Covid- 19. Recently the Botswana Softball Association was forced to call off their national team training camps after it emerged BNSC was too broke to finance the teams and this past week Botswana Athletics Association cancelled their track and field event and national cross country championship due to the same problem. Once more it is rumored that the annual grants for 2021/ 22 will be less than last year therefore most national sports association which are not very active face getting the least amounts or nothing at all.
“They have informed us that money will be granted as per important competitions, so it’s going to be difficult for everyone. The downside is that there will be no mass participation therefore most players are going to be deprived of chances to play in their respective national teams. But still health wise it’s a welcome development because there won’t be many tournaments, where most people gather, so looking at the bigger picture it’s a right decision,” said a source.
According to BNSC acting Chief Executive Officer, Tuelo Serufho, the decision to finance vital events only applies in the current financial year which lapses in March and they hope things will return to normal in the next financial year. “There are two things in here: Covid- 19 and finances. As sports all decisions we take are all about saving, so we won’t make any decisions which put human life at risk because life is important. We support government in its efforts to combat the pandemic therefore there are some activities such as rugby, weightlifting which we can’t allow because of Covid- 19. Financially the economy has been hit hard so as sports government told us to only fund activities or events which are unavoidable at this point in time.” He said and further pointed out that those avoidable can be deferred to the next financial year.
“For example football and Olympics can’t be stopped because there are possible penalties and sanctions that we can get if we decide not to participate in CAF/ FIFA events and we don’t want that. So those are the kinds of activities we will fund,” he said.
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