Clubs face FIFA connect glitches
With just a few days, at press time, left before the start of Botswana Football League ( BFL), BG Sport has established that some members of the league are still struggling to upload their registered players in the FIFA Connect system. FIFA Connect was introduced by the world football governing mother- body to help its member associations register all their stakeholders in a systematic way and to keep track of players and coaches. Following the closure of the transfer window last month, it appears that several BFL and First Division sides have not been able to fully upload their players and technical members into the system. One newly promoted side has been able to only register five ( 5) players and there are concerns that, should they go on and compete over the weekend, they might immediately have to face charges of using defaulters as the players are not in the system yet. “On transfer deadline, there were some serious problems in uploading the players into FIFA connect, it is not only us, several clubs have cited the same challenges. We have advised our members to share with the association these challenges, most teams have not even registered over 17 players; so that number cannot sustain a team over a long season, suspensions and injuries always occur in football. It needs to be resolved before the season starts,” a close source to the developments from one of the regions revealed. Further sources revealed that at least more than six teams in the First Division league have not be able to upload their registered players into the system. “We have experienced some challenges, we managed to register some players but some we were not able to, because on the last day of the transfer window it proved to be really difficult to upload the players. For the start of the season, we do have enough players registered to make the match- day squad, we have also communicated with the BFA our challenges and we are hopeful that they will respond anytime from now,” one chairman of the newly promoted side told BG Sport. “There are some teams that are said to have reported that they are experiencing some challenges regarding that issue [ FIFA Connect registration], we are expecting an official
communication from the relevant office. Whatever challenges we are facing, be it registration of players, compliance and or any other challenge, the league is starting this weekend that I can guarantee,” the BFL CEO, Senzo Mbatha shared when contacted.
The BFA are reportedly working around the clock to map a way forward and make exemptions where there is a need to allow teams to have their full strength squads before the commencement of the league. Contacted for a comment, the BFA, admitted that there has been some glitches which affected some teams but maintained that it will be resolved before the league starts. “The system was ok, what happened is, most teams were loading their players last minute, so because of traffic the system was slow to capture. The matter is before the BFA executives and I believe that by Friday it would have been resolved,” Olebile Pilara Head of Competitions and Operations at BFA shared. The transfer window was open for almost two months and Pilara advised teams to register their players well on time in the future to avoid logging into the system all at once in the last hours of the transfer window.