Butler gets Letshwiti’s attention
FOOTBAL
The President of the Botswana Football Association (BFA), Maclean Letshwiti has finally broken his silence over the numerous sporadic attack launched by former Zebras coach, Peter James Butler on local football administrators.
Speaking to BG Sport this week, the reluctant Letshwiti said “As much as I wish to avoid public spat with our former employee, Mr Butler, but as the custodian of Botswana football, I have an obligation to protect the reputation and integrity of Botswana football, especially our secretariat and stakeholders.”
“As a proponent of free speech, I believe that every statement made should be factual to demonstrate credence and responsibility, and therefore incessant and sporadic social and public media attacks on my administration and BFA secretariat, which lack decency and courtesy, cannot continue unabated or unchallenged.”He notes, “My position is that if Butler feels aggrieved or hard done, then as a professional, he is aware of the right channels to communicate his grievances, in line with existing labour structures or even seek redress with CAF, FIFA and the courts of law.” The candid Letshwiti calls on Butler to stop uttering statements, which, in his view, are tantamount to bringing the game of football into disrepute, and of course deliberately cause injury to some of the BFA personnel.
He cautions Butler that the BFA is on the verge of lodging a formal complaint for unprofessional conduct with all governing bodies such as Confederation of African Football (CAF), FIFA and even the UEFA which gave him a Pro License A.
However, Letshwiti acknowledges Butler’s passion for youth development structures programmes.
“He has always been passionate about developing our future stars, and it was my intention to retain him had it not been for his terms and conditions, which I found difficult to accept. For instance, he told me to expel some of the contracted secretariat staff as part of his conditions of accepting the renewal of his contract. I told him that it was not possible as they had done nothing to warrant the calls for expulsion.
Butler who possesses a UEFA Pro License has never given Maclean Letshwiti administration any credit ever since it became clear that he was not the preferred candidate for the two top technical positions of Technical Director and senior national team head coach at Lekidi House -the BFA headquarters. Butler has been consistent on his calls for a regime change at the BFA. In his own words, and in response to a recent BG Sport questionnaire, the english coach claims he has no axe to grind against anybody, nor is he interested in taking over the position, but he just loves this country and is worried that BFA Technical Director, Matshidiso Kowa and national team coach David Bright are not qualified to hold their positions. Butler has also made some unsubstantiated claims that one of the Serbian coaches working for a local premier league side in Botswana has forged his documents.