Botswana Football Association (BFA) has denied ownership and knowledge of the Botswana Football League (BFL) and FA cup draft fixtures which have been trending on social media.
Over the weekend, Facebook was awash with what was said to be draft fixtures for games to resume this month.
The BFA Competitions Manager Setete Phuthego said while it has been public knowledge that the association intends to resume this month, they have nothing to do with the leaked fixtures.
He says the BFA cannot claim ownership of the fixtures circulating on social media as they are not aware of the source and the information.
“BFA cannot accept ownership of the fixtures, or deny if the fixtures are true,” the BFA Competitions Manager says.
“If the association agrees that the fixtures are theirs and it ends up as a false statement, it will not look good,” he adds.
“The fixtures might be fabricated therefore the office takes no accountability in the trending football developments on social media” he says.
Phuthego further says he cannot comment on challenges currently faced by local football.
He says his office is in no position to comment as it has no authority to reveal the negative impacts clouding the league and its resumption.
Meanwhile, the BFA Competitions Manager says the association has been testing with play-offs and national teams matches to get an indirect observation of what the return of football activities will look like.
The test matches were done with one eye on preparing for football league season resumption, which was scheduled for this month.
Meanwhile, the BFA on Monday announced it has suspended all football activities. The announcement follows on the Botswana government’s decision to suspend all sporting activities.
The government’s decision to suspend all sport was communicated through the Botswana Government Gazette this past weekend.
In its statement on suspension of activities, the BFA says all activities, including training sessions, friendly matches and ‘any other tournament involving members of the BFA have been suspended.
The statement further says the ‘suspensions will remain in place until further direction from the relevant authorities.’
“We wish to inform you that the BFA continues to engage the relevant authorities on the subject matter and should there be aby further development, same will be duly communicated to all stakeholders,” reads the statement.
The announcement put paid any intention by various sporting codes to resume activities and further cast serious doubt on whether sport will be played this year as it was in 2020 when COVID-19 reached Botswana’s borders.
In the same statement, the association also advices stakeholders to ignore the fixtures that have been circulating in social media.
The association states that the said fixtures were not sanctioned by either BFL or BFA.
