BFA CHASE FIRST DIVISION SPONSORSHIP
Anticipates a thrilling 2023/2024 season
The curtain has come down on the Debswana First Division League (FDSL) season after seven (7) months of a thrilling campaign and Botswana Football Association (BFA) Chief Executive Officer, Mfolo Edwin Mfolo says negotiations on the deal with Debswana will be revisited as soon as possible.
This is after season 2022/2023 took off without a title sponsor after the initial three year deal sponsorship by Debswana elapsed.
Fortunately, the mining company came midway through the season and poured at least P3, 9 million into the coffers of the BFA for the just ended season only.
Winners of the league, Matebele FC (South) and Tafic FC (North) walked away with P30 thousand each as prize monies, while all the 24 teams in the league received P80 000 as grant monies.
The BFA had proposed a three (3) year deal to the mining giants but only a year was taken care of, as a result, plans for the 2023- 2024 season title sponsorship remain sketchy.
Earlier this year, BFA announced a partnership with UK based company, Pitch Direct, who have established a good reputation with African football game, to take charge of the marketing and commercial organs of the association.
“We had submitted a three (3) year proposal to them [Debswana] but they only addressed one season, our threeyear proposal however still stands,” Mfolo said when contacted by Sun Sport.
He added that, “We also have engaged Pitch Direct as our Marketing and sponsorship agency, we will very soon visit Debswana to continue the negotiations, this coming Thursday we [BFA and Pitch Direct] will have a meeting to look at some of these sponsorship issues,” he said.
Mfolo further highlighted that, Pitch Direct has been given a sponsorship analysis of the association which will enable them to execute their task precisely.
“If ever there was a league that has been interesting, that has made strong impact, it is the Debswana First Division League; we are confident that we will have partners for the league next season, it has been very exciting,” Mfolo revealed.
Extension Gunners and Mogoditshane Fighters have relegated to the Debswana First Division South to join Mochudi Centre Chiefs and Notwane FC, this means the league boast of teams with massive supporters.
But the main question amongst First Division legion of supporters has been on whether the First Division grounds will be able to host some of the expected crowd pullers matches.
“The chairman of the Botswana National Sport Commission, Marumo Morule wants this to happen. We had a meeting, it was BNSC, BFA and Debswana, the chairman told us that they will look at how they can contribute to what Debswana is already putting into football by availing the grounds; so these are some of the developments that are currently ongoing,” Mfolo revealed.
Debswana came on board to sponsor Botswana Football’s second tier league with a whopping P6 million back in 2013 and since then the mining company has been supporting the league.
For the 2020/2021 season, The BFA received at least P2 523 100 per season to run the league with the teams getting P55 000.00 grants monies.
Debswana were reportedly unhappy with mainly the coverage, branding and the image of the league before pouring P3,9 million on the league for a single season last year.
The BFA has swiftly moved to close that gap by actively providing live updates and covering some matches on the association’s social media platforms and the website.