The 2010 Task Force sees the Botswana Football Association (BFA) as the last desperate step in trying to lure countries that qualified for the 2010 World Cup.
The Task force that was appointed about four years ago has since failed in its mandate and made it clear that they have now left everything in the hands of the BFA.
Information reaching The Sunday Standard is that from the outset the BFA has been excluded from the main core business of the Task Force, which was to lure the so-called big teams to Botswana.
The BFA is reported to have appealed to the Task Force that they were being excluded from critical decisions but to little avail.
The Task Force, on the other hand, used people who do not have skills of courting countries, something that can actually be done by the BFA.
On the other hand, the Minister of Youth, Sports and Culture denied last week that the BFA was sidelined. He said they were involved from the word go.
The vice President of the BFA (Technical), Dintle Mphele, did not want to dwell much on the issue save to say the BFA was still busy trying to court countries that could play Botswana before the start of the World Cup.
“What I can say is that the BFA has been given the task of luring countries to Botswana. We are still talking to others but I can not reveal anything now because it is still at infancy stages,” said Mphele.
Information reaching Sunday Standard is that one of the countries Botswana is courting is Ivory Coast. The Ivoirians’ are reported to be willing to come to Botswana but certain things are being ironed out.
In Europe the country that is reported to be willing to grace Botswana soil is Serbia from where the current development coach and acting technical officer, Jellusic Vesselin, originates.
It looks time has already ran out for Botswana because already no country has agreed to come to Botswana.
Minister Kgathi last week said the countries Botswana tried to woo asked for exorbitant money as appearance fees. Kgathi also made it clear that Botswana wanted big countries that would market the country.
He further said that Botswana would not give out such amounts of money because the money could at least be channeled to other football projects, like the Zebras.
This then means that since big countries want big money it would be hard for Botswana to lure one.
Another factor that is disadvantaging Botswana is that all stadiums that would be used to play against foreign teams are incomplete and might not be ready before the World Cup.
