Disruptive elections slowing down progress
Elections are and should be a good thing, particularly to enhance democratic principles in any set-up. But often elections have become the disruptive force that applies brakes on progress.
We have often seen how dolling out goodies in the name of winning votes upsets the budget balance at international and local politics level. Politicians, including those in sport, will do everything to win an election, no matter how disruptive. It is always by hook or crook.
The obsession with elections has contributed to stagnation in not only football, but the growth of sport in general. Ask Tshepo Bathai and his fighting crew at karate. Kicks are flying all over just for the control of the sport. The welfare of karate is temporarily forgotten as the fight for positions assumes supremacy.
While the trend is strewn over all the sports disciplines, football usually gets the larger share of the spotlight. The recent regional Botswana Football Association (BFA) elections have once again demonstrated how evil the democratic process of elections can be. All sorts of under-hand tactics have been employed; all the dirty tricks in the book applied, all in the name of getting a favoured candidate across the line.
Forget the calibre of the candidate, what matters is the camp they belong to; not what they bring to the table.
It is a laughable situation only meant to maintain grip on power or just to get to the ‘esteemed office’. Sadly, those given the authority to run football at regional level are susceptible and conveniently gullible to dirty maneouvers. Votes are for sale to the highest bidder.
Old men and old women’s souls are for sale on a willing seller-willing buyer basis. Finding men and women of valour is as good as scanning through the haystack looking for a needle; you will not find it.
The few principled individuals are often frustrated out of the process and are forced to leave the entire feast to the carnivoures.
The doves have little they can do as they have very little support in their bid to reverse the trend. Running football should be easy; just get the deserving people in office, the technocrats so to speak. But that is the hardest part actually; easier said than done. And this is understandable.
When you get into office through a political process, there are those that you are indebted to; those foot soldiers who have to be rewarded. They might not be the brightest bulbs in any room, but you are forced to shove them in some position as appeasement.
What can you do, as you know that your today and tomorrow is dependent on them? So this vicious circle of survival will continue until eternity. It will take some brave men and women to change the status quo.
Football, in fact sport, should be run like a business, and not like a country. At national level, politics and politicians are still reigning supreme, which has taken root in sport as well. If properly administered, politics is a process that should work, but clearly it’s counter-productive in its wider definition.
Now all the focus is winning the 2024 BFA elections and some programmes might suffer with cadre deployment and appeasement taking the prominent role.