Sebego’s 2014 blunders

2014 was certainly a difficult year for Botswana Football Association (BFA) president Tebogo Sebego. He faced serious opposition from his NEC members and the football governing body in his choice of Technical Director, Benny Kgomela but employed him nonetheless.

Less than a year later Kgomela was involved in various altercations with the technical team, which forced Sebego to suspend him. Ernest Nthobelang, another NEC member resigned after enduring a sour relationship with Sebego. The verbal spat between the association’s chief Executive Officer Keith Masters and national team coach Peter James Butler was another testing time for Sebego.

During the build up to BFA’s Annual General Assembly, Sebego’s cabal - Friends of Football - suffered a severe split when Sebego barred Segolame Ramothwa from standing for election for Vice President Administration in preference of his blue-eyed boy Tariq Babitseng. Sinki Sesinyi, former campaign manager of Sebego ended up defecting to join Ramotlhwa in their new faction and later won the election. For the third year running, Sebego’s administration failed to secure sponsorship for a national cup, formerly sponsored by Coca Cola.

BFA had to resort to using the Mascom Top 8 tournament to qualify teams from the CAF Confederations Cup which is reserved for clubs winning their national associations’ cups. Recently the BFA President was finally pushed into a corner to suspend his lieutenant Babitseng for unaccounted finances given for the Zebras’ AFCON 2015 preliminary qualifiers against Guinea Bissau.

As a result, the BNSC has lost confidence in Sebego’s leadership in terms of financial accountability. They have since resorted to sending their officers to accompany the Zebras so as to protect public funds.