No decision on women’s leagues start
There has not been a fixed date for the start of the Women’s Regional Leagues, the Botswana Football Association (BFA) has said.
Football leagues will return to action later this month and November, the first time in 19 months. The Premiership will set the ball rolling on October 22, 2021. The First Division leagues will follow on November 13 while the men’s regional leagues are to start in late November.
The women’s league football is played at the regional level and BFA chief executive officer, Gaobaone Taylor told MmegiSport that the association is yet to conclude the teams’ and leagues’ registration process and a start date will be decided thereafter.
“We intend to start before the end of the year. We are still assessing teams that have registered and how many teams will be available to make up the league(s),” Taylor briefly said. The women’s football has grown at an impressive rate in the north, with five new teams joining the Francistown Regional League.
There are also talks to introduce the women’s league in the Boteti region to help the teams reduce costs. The game was thrown into some level of excitement after the BFA said a sponsorship deal had been secured.
This will be the first time in close to a decade for the women’s game to have a financial partner, since public transport, AT&T Monnakgotla’s three-year sponsorship for the then Women’s Super League ended in 2013. The deal was worth P300,000 but was not renewed. Since then, the women’s league football has depended on Good Samaritans and funds from the BFA to run. In 2016, the Super League was abolished and the women’s league has been played at the regional level since.
Information reaching this publication is that clubs were not informed about the sponsorship at a women’s football assembly in August. But Taylor, without divulging much detail, said the announcement of the sponsorship is imminent.
“Yes, the sponsorship is still in place. We will announce soon, we are planning to do a joint statement with the company involved,” she said.