Delay irks BFL clubs

Mascom Top 4 participants kept under wraps

While the Mascom Charity Cup final has not been played yet, the tension surrounding the competition is almost tangible at the Botswana Football League office.

The Charity Cup spectacular competition which has replaced the lucrative Mascom Top 8 this season had teams which finished in the top 8 bracket before the nullification of the season in 2020. Through a voting system, only four teams can make it to the final day where they will battle it out for P250 000 winners’ prize, but the battle to go through the voting line to make it to the top four is breathtaking, epitomizing elite Olympian sprinters approaching the finishing line on the home stretch. Jwaneng Galaxy, Township Rollers, Orapa United, Security Systems, Gaborone United, Prisons XI, Mahalapye Railway Highlanders and BDF XI await to find out who has made the cut in the high stakes charity cup.

The last voting statistics released by the local Mobile giants, Mascom, 6 days ago, stood as: BDF XI ( 33 885), Security Systems ( 20 050), Township Rollers ( 13 300) and Orapa United ( 12 272) in the top four bracket while Gaborone United were 5th with 10 824 votes and other sides collecting below 3 500 votes. The voting lines were closed on Monday and organizers of the tournament have announced that the final four ( 4) teams will be revealed today ( Friday), but that has not gone down well with some concerned parties who fear that the delay to announce the results could allow a window of opportunity for some irregular practices. “We have been engaging almost the whole day, we are wondering why is it that the names of the teams in the top four can’t be made public.

At the close of voting lines there should have been a report to give feedback and the final draw would still be conducted on Friday like they have scheduled. There is no transparency and this is very worrying,” one club representative responded. Orapa United is one of the clubs which strongly demanded an update and release of the results after voting but their interrogations hit a brick- wall. A tense atmosphere is expected at Lekidi on Friday where the results will be an

TENSE MOMENTS... Mascom Chief Executive Officer Makhwade- Seboni said they have set aside over P1.1 million, which is meant to provide for travel and accommodation costs of the four clubs and other requirements