A Kerfuffle looming at BFA
... as Letshwiti rebukes BFL leadership
Botswana Football Association ( BFA) president, Maclean Letshwiti has come out strong and issued a stern warning to the echelons of power at Botswana Football League ( BFL), regarding operations of the newly formed entity.
Speaking at the BFL’s inaugural general assembly held at Tlotlo Conference Centre this past weekend, Letshwiti did not hold back that he was less than impressed with how the BFL bosses have sailed the ship in their first term in office. He warned that should they continue to demonstrate their inability to smoothly run the operations of the league, the seamless transition of the BFL as an autonomous body will be done under the BFA offices. His bone of contention was that, at the time when the BFL was handed its autonomy, it had sponsors and there were other potential sponsors lining to join the league, including Kgalagadi Breweries Limited ( KBL) – currently the BFL league is expected to start next week without a title sponsor. “This is a business, if you are a business and you are not generating revenue then you are bankrupt and you cannot continue as a business. I don’t know if that is the problem of the chairman or problem of the board or the problem of your office. You have to
generate revenue and be sustainable, if you don’t, we will intervene. If you can’t transform yourself, you’re forcing the mother- body to come in and intervene and transform you,” the BFA president warned. Letshiwiti cited that in Zambia, Uganda and Tanzania, the process of transformation is undertaken by the association and called out the chairman of BFL, Nicolas Zakhem to get the BFL house in order. The BFA president further expressed his displeasure, particularly relating to club licensing matters as several clubs in recent years have failed to fully satisfy club licensing requirements and warned that for next season no team will be absolved if they fail. “I have with great sadness, taken note of what has been happening, and we are deeply worried about the pockets of resistance by some of the clubs whose
attitude towards professionalization of clubs has basically brought football into disrepute. I repeat club licensing like governance is non- negotiable,” he warned. He went on to state that, “Club licensing will be automated from next season therefore, you must buckle up because club licensing will have very little to do with BFA or the BFL. It is you who must do all the work and failure to be at speed with technology will close you out. This is probably the future yardstick of whether you want to play with the big boys or not. We will not compromise the standards and the professional bodies who adjudicate on your compliance have demonstrated to all that they will remain as impartial and neutral as possible,