Vaccinated sports fans prioritised
This follows the Minister of Youth Empowerment, Sport and Culture Development, Tumiso Rakgare’s announcement that fans are now allowed back to the stadiums.
It is now up to Botswana National Sports Commission ( BNSC) and Botswana Football Association ( BFA) to decide arrangement to ensure adherence to COVID- 19 protocols are observed. In an interview this week, BNSC CEO, Tuelo Serufho has said engagements are ongoing, emphasising that some sports fans are still outside the age bracket that is currently being vaccinated. “We want to help the Ministry to drive the vaccination campaign, but we are also cognizant of the fact that there are those who have not been vaccinated and not because they don’t want to. We have to accommodate both who have been vaccinated and the ones who haven’t yet,” BNSC CEO explained. However, the BFA has announced that there will be no spectators allowed for the under 20 second leg tie between Botswana and Angola which will be played in Obed Itani Chilume Stadium on Saturday. Botswana holds an aggregate lead of 4- 1 as they eye qualification to the Costa Rica 2022 U20 world cup. Information gathered by this publication is that, the local sport governing motherbody has taken the matter upon itself to give guidelines on the arrangements regarding the return of fans to stadiums.
The BFA are currently awaiting a green light from BNSC on that particular subject. Serufho stated that as sport leaders they must take responsibility and ensure that the safety of all involved in sport is a top priority. “We want to allow the return of fans to the stadium to be gradual, we don’t want sport to be seen as one of the contributing agents to the spread of coronavirus. We are not going to allow fans all at once to return to the stadiums; we have a game in Francistown, we will do a pilot to see how we can allow fans back into the stadiums. The return of fans to the stadiums will be done in a phased manner,” Serufho shared.
Serufho also highlighted that they are working closely with the Ministry of Health to decide on how the two organs can work together efficiently to push COVID- 19 vaccination campaign. He said he was happy that Sport activities have returned and said sports people must act responsibly as they do not want to see sports being suspended in the future.
“We have to show the health bodies that we are responsible, that is why when other sectors have fully allowed for engagements, we continue to apply COVID- 19 regulations because the virus is still out there,” He concluded.