BRIGHT ORANGE FUTURE
The BFA are still hunting for a sponsorship partner for the senior national teams, the last time the Zebras had a sponsor was in 2012, and it was Orange.
The Zebras went on to qualify for their maiden appearance in the Africa Cup of nations which were held in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea. BFL, on the other hand , are yet to find a title sponsor, since they were granted autonomy from the BFA.
“We enjoyed great success, our collaboration with BFA when we were the national team sponsors, and that was the only time they managed to qualify for the AFCON finals; we were backing them. As a business we make choices and at this moment in time we believe that the Orange FA Cup resonates more with us in the sense that we are targeting the local populace and the Orange FA cup takes us to all four (4) corners of the country,” Butale indicated. “We also have a responsibility to grow football, when I talk about being futuristic, we are looking at long term development. We could be selfish and look at sponsoring the elites like the Premier League, but we took a route less travelled and we believe that as part of our Corporate Social Responsibility, we owe it to the community that has been supporting us, but like I say, never say never,” Butale revealed when asked about the possibilities of sponsoring either the Zebras or the local elite BFL.
During his remarks at the launch of the new Orange FA Cup deal, Butale also stated that the renewal of the Orange FA cup with BFA reaffirms their dedication to fostering the development, growth and promotion of the local game as well as the upliftment of local communities. He added that the collaboration with BFA makes a difference to thousands of people and that football is a universal language that unites people, regardless of background, race, and language. Orange announced an investment increase of 17percent to P15.4M over three (3) years which equates to just over P5.1M per season. This year, 48 local teams will stand a chance to win an P800 000.00 cash prize, and Gaborone United are the current defending champions of the FA Cup, following their triumphs on season 2 and season 3. Butale further added that they have levelled the playing ground and hope that the regional teams will do well which will bring more excitement in the competition. “I will also like to see more spectators at the games, what I have noted is that, our people support leagues abroad, the likes of Manchester United, Arsenal, Liverpool but they don’t play a similar role locally which I actually find very unfortunate; so together with the association we need to find out why it is like that,” he concluded.