Tafic’s great escape
From jaws of despair to complete elation, Tafic Sporting Club’s fans have endured mixed feelings over the just ended season. The Francistown based, former Premier League giants have only just survived relegation miraculously and in a spectacular fashion, giving its football fans in the region hope that the possibilities of better days lie ahead. Matjimenyenga, as the side is commonly known in local football circles, were relegated to Francistown Regional Football Association at the end of the season. When they were in desperate need of an angel to save them from a possible humiliating fate, 11 of them came to their rescue. Eleven Angels thrashed Mochudi Centre Chiefs in a First Division promotional play- off encounter to gain promotion to the local elite league, a result which left a vacant spot in the Debswana First Division North, giving Matjimenyenga a window of opportunity to return into the league via other play- offs. Zowa United from Letlhakane, Tafic FC of Francistown and Selibe Phikwe’s Superstars United, all battled it out over this past weekend at Serowe Sports complex, with the winner set to fill up a spot left by Eleven Angels. Tafic finished the playoffs on pole position with four points after a 2- 1 win against Superstars United and a 1 all draw with Zowa United to confirm their status in the First Division North. The Francistown side have been struggling financially to lure talent or even keep their own star players, one of the major set- backs which contributed to their struggles last time out. The current club leadership has been sweating over a possible transformation of the side into a business entity, a model thought to be a solution to the financial predicaments troubling the side. Philmon Makwengwe was roped in to once again perform a miracle, just a few weeks after
he mastered another relegation escape for South Africa’s Glad African Championship side, Black Leopards. The veteran football tactician delivered the mission with aplomb, plotting one of the greatest relegation escapes in the local football history. Makwengwe was only roped in to help the team retain its status and the search for a new man to come and lead the team is reportedly underway. Now that Tafic have secured their status in the First Division, the biggest question remains, have they learnt any lessons and how are they planning to navigate through the challenges of the upcoming season and beyond? “Our objective is always to compete, it was very unfortunate that we found ourselves where we were this past season but fortunately we managed to survive. We are always looking to fight to get promoted back into the Premier League. It doesn’t matter whether we
were in a relegation scrap, as long as we are in the First Division, we should be fighting to get promotion,” Communications Manager of the club, Kabelo Dipholo shared. Quizzed on their plans to overcome the challenges they faced this past season, Dipholo noted that they picked up on a number of issues that were not done right, adding that the challenges presented good lessons to help them prepare for the future. “Looking back at our season, there is quite a number of things we didn’t do well, the executive committee is set to meet this weekend to plan for next season. We’ve not had a break as we have been preparing for the play- offs,” he said. “Our recruitment of the players was not good, even the technical team. We need to get things right this time around. Now, we