For a long time, the Botswana Football Association (BFA) has been brainstorming with the idea of setting strict qualifications standard, in as far coaching is concerned. The BFA mainly wanted to regularize those coaches from outside the country so that only quality graces the Premier League. The BFA wanted to start with the current season but they had to be a little bit patient and would seriously start enforcing the idea next season.
Had the BFA started this season, many prominent foreign coaches would have not made it. According to the senior technical officer of the BFA, Philmon Makgwengwe, they had to be bit lenient to allow more coaches to gain entry requirements needed. Makgwengwe added that they wanted to give some time to those coaches who do not have qualifications needed to upgrade themselves. “There is no question about it, next season we would not be compromising. All foreign coaches in Botswana aspiring to coach in the Premier League, would posses minimum requirements of either A or Pro license. This is mainly done to even help our coaches to grow because they would be learning from qualified foreign ones.
We want quality coaches who will bring something highly needed,” he said. Makgwengwe also stressed that coaches that do not meet their requirements would have to be assistant to locals or either coach at the lower divisions. Makhwengwe said this would also encourage many local coaches to take coaching seriously. Some of the prominent foreign coaches in Botswana in possession of needed requirements are the likes of Township Rollers and Gaborone United duo of Madinda Ndlovu and Rahman Gumbo. One prominent figure coach who might be seriously affected if he does not upgrade his qualifications is Mochudi Centre Chiefs coach, Mike Sithole.
Currently the Premier League is not dominated by either foreigners or locals, but the situation is kind of an equal situation. The situation is even equal for those teams that are at the summit of the league. The four teams at the top are led by two locals and even two foreigners. These statistics reflect a drastic improvement compared to some years back when the elite league was dominated by foreign coaches especially from the neighbouring Zambia and Zimbabwe.
