YOUTH FOOTBALL LEAGUES DELAY KICK-OFF
While the elite Botswana Football League (BFL) is set to start this weekend, the national youth leagues will have to wait for a little longer. After successfully starting the national youth league in November 2016, the 17 regional structures of the Botswana Football Association (BFA) selected regional squads in the under 13, 15 and 17 age groups in a nationwide talent scouting exercise.
Over 1800 kids reportedly took part at the inter regional competitions as Serame Letsoaka, the then BFA technical director, looked to set Maclean Letshwiti’s development plan in motion. Inter-regional finals were used to select the shadow block teams and ultimately make national team selections in their respective age categories.
The Outbreak of the novel coronavirus put to a halt to the positive strides that were being made by the association in youth development. Newly appointed technical director, Tshepo Mphokothi has revealed that their youth league programmes are set for a return next year. In a brief interview with this publication, Mphokothi said that: “Our youth leagues are unlikely to return this year, we have most of the players writing their final examinations and that is a major hiccup in our efforts to return; we have to allow them to have full focus on their studies. Competition will begin next year, but we are also exploring possibilities to have an activation tournament for under 15’s in December as most of them are not writing their final exams.”
Although their (BFA) prospects to make up for lost time are likely to be fruitless, the association’s head of technical department Mphokothi, is looking to the future and continues with efforts to unearth and nurture talent. “There is no time to cry over spilt milk, the lost time is gone and we have to move forward; that gap in the players’ development cannot be bridged. We have good solid programmes and we have to be actively involved to see how far we are, continue to work and improve,” Mphokothi stated.
The man entrusted with leading and implementing the association’s development programmes led a rallying to the powers that be for a return of school sports. “School sports is really crucial to our development project and talent identification base. We need to bring school sports back. We may not have a football team in the north east, for example, but schools are there; we have been able to have some players from that side thanks to school sports, so it is really imperative that the programme returns.”
Following the latest FIFA rankings where the Zebras are ranked 149 in the world and 45 in Africa, Mphokothi had this to say:“If we are not active we will slide down in the rankings and that means we will not be able to attract competition of other top sides. We will have international friendlies soon; our local football season is about to begin and that will also help to have players physically ready to compete at national level.” he stated.