BFA shows BPL who’s the boss
The Botswana Football Association (BFA)‘s decision to reinstate the Premier League Management Committee with immediate effect has rubbed the Botswana Premier League (BPL) Board the wrong way.Following the controversial acts and irregularities that played themselves out in the open at BPL office last week, resulting in one planned game being aborted and the league board divided, the BFA early this week moved swiftly to reinstate the long lost Management Committee to address fixtures.
A decision that the BFA thought as a cool down remedy that would restore order at the BPL office. Nevertheless it seems the fire has not been put out yet, if anything, BFA has further angered the BPL board. Allegations reaching this publication suggest that sometime this week, the BPL wrote a letter of displeasure to the BFA president about the recent unfolding developments. However, BFA CEO Mfolo Mfolo has denied receiving such a letter from BPL.
Meanwhile, it appears that the BPL board feels that BFA acted on emotions when they decided to reinstate the committee without even involving them. A story carried by BG Sport last week questioned why the BPL office did not have a Management Committee despite the fact that the BFA constitution demanded such. The Management Committee should be responsible for the control and administration of the premier league competitions. The club chairmen were conflicted when it came to issues of fixtures and as such, they were now pointing fingers at the BPL Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Thabo Ntshinogang for turning BPL office into a one- man show.
Nevertheless this week, when BFA saw the need to bring back the Management Committee, the BPL was visibly thrown to the dogs by the football mother body. The BFA leadership even issued a press statement, apologizing for the controversial aborted Miscellaneous and Township Rollers game. The BFA National Executive Committee even assured that they are investigating the matter and will get to the bottom of it and remedial actions will be taken if necessary.
On the other hand, the BPL office never publicly apologized. In fact, prior to the aborted game, Ntshinogang had written a letter to Miscellaneous telling them that there shall be consequences if they did not attend the scheduled game. He had at the time seen nothing wrong with the decisions his office made prior to the cancelled game. It remains unclear if BFA feels that BPL is to blame for the outcome of events or not. Nevertheless the tricky part is that section 12.5.3 of the BFA constitution that speaks of powers of the premier league board says that the board is responsible for the appointment of the management committee headed by the Premier league Executive Director.
According to Mfolo, the Executive Director in this regard is Ntshinogang. Quizzed if BFA was not stepping on BPL toes more so that the board as per the constitution should appoint their own committee, Mfolo was defensive arguing that when things go wrong, they have the authority to act within the best interest of football and with that, they had to intervene.
BG sport has it in good authority that BPL was not present when BFA met with the reinstated Management Committee this Monday. In fact those who were present at the meeting have told this publication that the meeting was very brief and only informing them that they are now back at BPL. The man who is heading the committee, Booker Bannister, when reached for comment said that BFA has not given them any details as to what they need his team to do. “I feel I cannot comment at the moment because we are yet to be told why we have been reinstated and what it is that we need to do,” he said.
The Management Committee was dissolved in 2017 when Rapula Okaile was the BPL board chairman. It was alleged at the time, that there were wrangles between the BPL board and the Committee. The board felt the committee was disrespecting their presence while the management committee also demanded respect from the league board. Mfolo however said that they will be following the constitution this time around and if all want to protect the image of football, they have to find common ground and operate in a manner that will prevent the BPL’s name to be brought into disrepute.