Mpote hails local coaches
The veteran gaffer, who previously won the league title with Township Rollers has turned Orapa United into a cup competition destruction force.
Mpote, who is currently the national team interim Head Coach led the Zebras to the final of COSAFA cup in 2019 and lost 0- 1 to Zambia.
The weekend’s four teams charity spectacular saw all teams competing in the tournament managed by local coaches. Mpote has lauded his counterparts for the progress made and said the games showed that local coaches are more than competent.
“For now, I’d say, people who still go outside the country in search of coaches are wasting their time. We have coaches here, good coaches with high tactical acumen.
The weekend tournament showed exactly what I am talking about; it was very apparent to see approaches and tactical switches of the coaches in different phases of the game. Am very happy with this progress and I believe that, given a chance, local coaches can win the league and guide the national to qualify for continental and international competitions,” Mpote stated.
Teenage, as he is fondly known in football circles, has been through the doors of high level coach education as a student with Aston Villa appearing on his Curriculum Vitae as one of the places he has been.
He added that if local coaches can be given a chance to show their qualities, in the near future a lot of them would go on to coach beyond the borders of Botswana.
The local football association, has in recent times been linked with foreign coaches for the vacant post
left by Adel Amrouche.
Sua Flamengos gaffer, Rahman Gumbo and former Kaizer Chiefs coach, Gavin Hunt have reportedly been on the radar of the BFA.
Local media reports that Hunt has submitted his credentials to the BFA office and given his wealth of experience in the games, the association’s top brass are said to be keen on engaging his services.
The association has found a corner of defence whenever the question of engaging a local coach arises which is that the qualification requirement at CAF level is A license and only three local individuals currently hold those qualifications.
Last week, veteran football commentator, Nelson Ditibane took to social media and questioned why local coaches who have been trained for CAF A license have not been issued the certificates.
It has been more than a year now since the coaches were trained under the guidance of former BFA technical director, Serame Letsoaka.
According to close reports, CAF had not sanctioned the training of that particular course; in fact, CAF at the time had suspended coach education as they were looking to restructure their model. The
BFA have been struggling to convince CAF officials to come and conduct the final assessment on the coaches and issue certificates.
“The sad part is that there is no communication from the association; we don’t know what is happening or when we will receive the certificates. We just see the association conducting other coaching courses and we remain clueless about our situation.
We’ve heard rumours that we may have to re- do the course but it will be better if someone could communicate with us,” one of the coaches responded.
In September last year, BFA 1st Vice President, Masego Nchingane told this publication that they were hopeful that by January they would have secured a CAF instructor to assess coaches and issue their CAF A license certificates.
Al- Ahly coach, Pitso Mosimane recently implored Africa to prioritize the appointment of African coaches across the board.
The three- time CAF Champions League winner insisted that if foreigners were being considered, then they need to have a more than convincing track records to be considered for a coaching post.
Four of the five African teams going to the Qatar world cup are coached by local coaches.