The recently assembled Botswana Coaches Association is up in arms and aggressively advocating for fair treatment of local coaches.
Disgruntled local coaches are said to be of the belief that local clubs are acting unprofessionally towards them.
It has emerged that the coaches are concerned with the manner clubs assist them compared to their foreign counterparts.
According to sources, the association is currently penning a blue print that stipulates minimum wages for local coaches.
This follows an outcry by local coaches that they earn less while their foreign counterparts enjoy fat cheques.
“Local coaches are now seeking to be treated in the same way as foreign coaches flooding the local scenes. While majority of foreign coaches work full time as managers for their clubs, local coaches are relegated to part time engagements due to lack of job security surrounding their titles in local clubs,” a source told The Telegraph.
It has also been revealed that the association intends to screen all foreign coaches coming into the country, with a view to have credible mentors that have the capacity to assist in growing the local game.
“Local coaches are concerned that some inexperienced foreign coaches of lesser quality are hired at the expense of better qualified and experienced local coaches,” said a source.
Among other things, the association also intends to monitor trends adopted by the Botswana Football Association (BFA) to appoint national team coaches.
It has emerged that the recent appointments did not go down well with some of the coaches as they believe coaches are not appointed on merit hence the recent poor outings by national teams.
The coaches are now demanding for explanations on the criteria used to appoint national selectors.
In an interview with The Telegraph, Botswana Coaches Association president Nelson Olebile said they were pushing to localise regional coaching jobs for the sake of developing local coaches.
He said it was also important that clubs realise coaching as a career and ensure that coaches’ welfare is a priority.
“We are not discriminating against foreign coaches by localising coaching positions at regional level but it is critical that we develop local coaches but at national level clubs can willingly hire coaches of their choice. The other factor that is key is the wages factor and we are working on drafting a minimum wage bill for the sake of coaching career,” Olebile told The Telegraph.
He concluded: “We wrote to the BFA to affiliate with them and hope to have a healthy relation. Coaches appointed for national duty need our support so that they cannot be isolated and avoid gossip that brings down level of football in the country.”
