Controversy dogs Club licensing

Botswana Football Association (BFA) Club Licensing Committee, an organ responsible for overseeing the licensing processes for football clubs in Botswana, has gone ‘ballistic’ concerning the association’s continued negligence and unethical conduct, some bordering on alleged criminality, BG Sport has established.

Over the past years, some local clubs have failed to comply with the requirements of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) andthe BFA club licensing manual yet little to no action has been taken.

The BFA Club Licensing Committee are decrying what they described as ‘interference’ by some executives of the association which has derailed the committee from their mandate and only to serve as ‘puppets’ of some individuals within the association.

The developments come on the backdrop of accusations that some top teams from the Botswana Football League (BFL) last season failed to satisfy the licensing manual. Despite the letters of recommendations to instigate action sent to the association, no action was taken or feedback given to the local licensing office. This publication has been reliably informed that two of the licensing committee members, the legal and finance representatives have since left, leading to the club licensing office unable to operate without a quorum.

The Club Licensing Committee Chairperson, Leviet Ntwaagae confirmed to this publication that their grievances have been unattended for some time now and they have called the BFA to get their house in order, albeit without any success.

“We fall under the First Instance Body and then there is the Appeals Body and after the two structures there is Court of Arbitration for Sport, which is now at FIFA level. I am saying this because I want to highlight that the BFA cannot overrule or control us, we are very independent, the BFA can only relay messages to their members or if they are not happy with something they can appeal through Appeals Body,” Ntwaagae stated.

“The association under the stewardship of the CEO, Mfolo Mfolo, has developed a habit of interfering with the work of our committee,' fumes Ntwaagae, also raising issues of conflict of interest. He says this disturbs the development of football. 'Last year fixtures and dates for start of the season were announced before we even completed doing the licensing, how is that possible—it is a contravention of Club Licensing processes and renders our office counterproductive,” Ntwaagae added.

The former Tafic FC Chairman further shared that the president of the association has been made aware of the situation especially in relation to providing the Club Licensing Committee with proper working standards.

“The club licensing manager, who is supposed to relay our messages to the association is seen to be doing our work and yet he holds a position in the association in the competitions department, that is wrong and it is not allowed by CAF. This is the first non-compliance.'

Ntwaagae goes on to raise criminal accusations. 'We picked that some staff members of the association have been soliciting money from clubs for club licensing, this is fraud and should not be allowed. We have written to the President and are awaiting his response soon because if not, we will take the next step and report at CAF. If this is how we are going to operate, the CAF Club Licensing strategy will not see light of day in Botswana,” Ntwaagae said.

Ntwaagae stated that the BFA must respect the Club Licensing office to set a good precedence for future operations and growth of football.

The Chairman of the Club Licensing Committee has warned that they are already working on their next step to report the association to CAF over several anomalies that have been embraced by the association.

To this point the local licensing office has only worked on two clubs that are competing in the CAF Inter Club championships, Gaborone United and Jwaneng Galaxy while all other developments have hit a brick-wall with the league set to kick off in six weeks (2nd August 2025).

In response, the BFA has conceded negligence. 'Admittedly we have not given Club Licensing Committee the attention it deserves, we have held conversations to devise strategies which could help their office to be more efficient, they need to be independent. Things like spot checks, funds permitting, we will make them available to enable the committee to serve its mandate independently as it is the case in other countries,' Chief Operations Officer at BFA, Kago Mosinyi said when responding to BG Sport's inquiries.

He continued: We are looking into every detail and we want to have a well functioning Club Licensing Committee, so we'll engage with all stakeholders to make sure we achieve the goal of growing football in Botswana.'