No football until August
The 2020-2021 football season is set to be declared null and void following the recent suspension of sport activities, Mmegi Sport has learnt. The government imposed a suspension on sporting activities until April 1, 2021, and sources close to developments say stakeholders will make the decision to scrap off the 2020-2021 football season. There have been persistent calls to scrap off the league season due to unfavourable conditions to play.
It had been resolved that the league season kick off on March 6, with the Orange FA Cup quarterfinals breaking a 12-month hiatus, but it was yet another false start as the government announced new coronavirus (COVID-19) restrictions.
The Botswana Football League (BFL) transformation committee chairperson, Jagdish Shah said the clubs met recently and proposed to scrap off the season. He said the fate of the league will be decided as soon as Wednesday. Shah said the BFL is to meet with Botswana Football Association (BFA) president, Maclean Letshwiti to decide the fate of the league.
“The BFL shareholders had a meeting just recently and the suggestion was that the league season be declared null and void, then we start over in August under the normal timeline with 2021-2022 season.
A final decision was not taken then, we are waiting on the BFA president who is in Morocco with his vice before we can make a decision. I believe by next week Wednesday we would able to let the public know the fate of their league,” Shah said.
The Township Rollers boss further put weight on the speculation as he said clubs would not be able to compete upon the lifting of the ban. “I personally have my doubts; the first reason being COVID-19 and the complications that come with it. Secondly, teams have stopped training, players have been dispersed.
So we would need a month of pre-season and that is if the suspension is lifted by the start of April. So this makes June the only possible month to start playing but then we would have to give enough time for the next season to start,” Shah said.