Rollers faces fraud charges
However, Mafa was sent by other high ranked officials at the club to the BFA offices, a move which has since landed him in hot waters.
Further to the aforementioned charges that Rollers faces, there is a possible deduction of points, suspension from football competitions and or possible relegation to lowest league within Botswana Football Association structures. Close reports suggests that Rollers might be docked 15 points for using the players, which will see Mapalastina drop to mid- table. That is however still under evaluation as some top football officials are calling for a more severe punishment. Moyagoleele are currently at the summit of BPL with 61 points with five games remaining to end the season, while Mapalastina, on the other hand, are trailing on the second position on 59 points.
Recent social media reports suggest that Township Rollers is not the only side which has players who have been registered outside the transfer window. Whilst they may lead to exoneration of charges facing the club, the Botswana Football League ( BFL) has not received any complaint or information regarding such allegations. The BFA secretariat has reportedly cleared any suggestions that there are some players who have been registered against the laws of
registration of players. “We have not received any inquiries on the possibility of other players being registered irregularly, we’ve seen on social media of about 50 players who are reported to have been issued their cards outside the transfer window. If we receive any names we will follow the similar processes we did for Ratanang’s matter,” an inside source at BFL revealed. “We must be very careful with this issue, the BFA must not rush to charge Rollers, there’s a need to first establish if he is the only player in the league who has not been properly registered. Rollers should not be judged yet, this might be an issue to do with the services at
the association, this should trickle down to the lower regions,” a source with the BFA NEC shared. The BFA CEO Mfolo Edwin Mfolo was quick to dismiss the reports and shared that, “according to our records, he [ Ratanang] is the only one,” he said. Following the announcement of the suspension of its two members, Township Rollers released a statement, stating that, “the club shall abide by all directions given by the mother- body and shall cooperate with all relevant structures of the BFA as appropriate, until the matter has been brought to its finality.”
A judgment on the matter is expected in the next 10 days