BFA ACCELERATES BPL TRANSFORMATION EFFORTS
The Botswana Football Association (BFA) has accelerated its efforts to turn around the Botswana Premier League (BPL) with the recent formation of a four-men committee.
The committee has been tasked with transforming the BPL into a commercial entity that will attract sponsors.
The new outfit is set up to accelerate the transformation of the BPL towards self-autonomy. The BPL has been seeking autonomy for years now without any progress. With the formation of the committee, which comprises well-known corporate personalities, the football fraternity hopes that finally the league will become a commercially viable entity.
Township Rollers president, Jagdish Shah leads the committee as the chairperson.
He works with Gilport Lions director, Kelesitse Gilika, Anthony Mokento and Nicholas Zachem. Their responsibilities commenced with immediate effect. Shah has been credited with turning Rollers into a viable project since he invested his money and ideas into it.
His involvement with the club has helped them dominate the local league as well as become the first local side to reach the group stages of the CAF Champions league. Furthermore, he has also managed to bring along sponsors for his side. As for Zachem, his footprints at Gaborone United (GU) are also well documented.
Before Rollers took the commercialisation project to a new level, GU kick-started the project under Zachem although they lagged behind for some years after some internal squabbles at the club. He however bounced back into the side two years back. Gilika on the other hand, is the face behind Gilport Lions who have become one of the first football sides to be privately owned.
Their expertise is expected to bring life back to the elite league, which lost its spark after the main sponsor, BTC reduced its sponsorship in the just-ended season. BTC’s contract ended in the past season. Both the BTC and BFA are yet to engage each other on possibilities of a renewal.