Players’ contracts to be audited before new season

The Footballers Union of Botswana (FUB) secretary-general, Kgosana Masaseng has said all players’ contracts will be evaluated before the start of the new season in an effort to cut out salary disputes.

The path to the Player Dispute Resolution has been well-trodden in recent seasons as clubs struggle to constantly shell players’ dues. “Our expectation for the new season is that we will be engaging with the league constantly on issues affecting players.

We have agreed to do some audits of contracts before the start of the season. This is to ensure that they are all aligned and there are no issues. It is also to ensure that all players have got copies of their contracts,” Masaseng said. “What we have realised is that some clubs do not give players a copy of the contract and when a dispute arises, we will be told that the player did not have his contract.

These are issues that we make sure are sorted before the start of the season,” he added.

He said there has been a commitment from the Botswana Football League (BFL), through the

Competition Agreement, to ensure players are paid on time.

“We will be on our toes to ensure that these things are done so that we run a seamless season without challenges,” Masaseng said. Regarding the Botswana Football Association (BFA), Masaseng said they have exchanged notes regarding the proposed changes to the Dispute Resolution Chamber regulations.

“We have started exchanging notes on statutory instruments that we want to see changed, for instance, the National Dispute Resolution Chamber. We have made some proposals to amend the rules as the process has been very frustrating, particularly on the part of the players,” he said.

The BFA has forwarded the proposed changes to its legal committee, which is expected to make recommendations to the association’s executive committee for final approval.

“We have started working on standard contracts for national team players and the code of conduct for national team players. We are waiting for the next camp where the BFA has promised to invite us to explain the contract and the code of conduct to the players.

Every player has to sign these once they are called to the national team,” Masaseng said. He said the changes are meant to protect the players when on national duty. In the past, there have been incidents of Zebras players downing tools over unpaid dues.