BY ANITA RANNOBA
The Botswana Football Association (BFA) and the Slovak Football Federation this past Friday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the latter to help compliment and supplement youth development programmes in Botswana.
The MoU which was signed and sealed at Lekidi House by two football federations is a culmination of talks that started two years ago.
According to the BFA chief executive officer (CEO) Mfolo Mfolo, the signing was made possible by the proposal that was made to the UEFA in 2017 through the CAF to help the BFA on its youth development program.
“The proposal landed on the fertile minds of the Slovak Football Federation, who too have passed through the current situation that we find ourselves in seven years ago. They saw it fit to mentor us with the first milestone being financial assistance of US$ 40 000.00,” said Mfolo.
The BFA CEO highlighted that the financial injection from the federation will be used to build changing rooms, as well as undertake other priorities that we will be developing going further.
Aside from the much needed financial boost, Mfolo said the two countries will also working together towards the exchange of skill and football development.
The signing of the MoU presents yet another huge step for the Maclean Letshwiti led BFA, which had set youth development as one of its primary pillars when assuming the association leadership in 2016.
Speaking at the MoU signing, Letshwiti said there is a lot that Botswana can learn from the Slovak football federation.
According to the BFA president, the Slovaks were in a similar situation to Botswana, having no development structure or even professional league said Letshwiti. He however said since then, the country has managed to rebuild just as Botswana wishes to do.
“If we all work together we can achieve as Slovak achieved. We too, in seven years to come will be somewhere and we will achieve as they have here in Africa,” said Letshwiti.
Furthermore he noted that the delegates are here to examine what the nation has and does not have. They have also agreed to provide training facilities for our national teams as they have the technical expertise and also the infrastructure to facilitate professional training.
According to the general secretary of the Slovak Football Federation, Jozef Kliment, the first meeting materialized last year November when the association was taken on board on how Slovak conduct their football.
“We did not only come to sign the memorandum, but to have meetings with all the stakeholders which are important on the development. Not only from the association, we also meet the Minister of Basic Education, And Minister of Youth, Sports and Culture and also the BNOC to introduce them to our system and how it works,” Kliment said.
