Excitement which greeted the announcement of a P3 million sponsorship for regional tournaments has petered off following growing doubts that the sponsor, DC Tours may not live up to its promise.
The sponsorship deal secured by Botswana Football Association President Mclean Letshwiti is still held up in the drawing room as parties haggle over the small print.
So far, the sponsor has still not disbursed the first tranche of the sponsorship money to Regional Football Associations (RFA).
DC Tours has agreed to sponsor RFAs to the tune of P3 million for three years. The sponsorship was launched on the eve of the BFA Annual General Assembly (AGA) that was held on the 12th August 2017.
This has spawned conspiracy theories that the timing in announcing the sponsorship deal was a slight of hand by Letshwiti to pacify and win over regional delegates ahead of what was expected to be a turbulent AGA. There were whispers of a mooted motion of no confidence against the BFA leadership by regional delegates to the AGA.
“The announcement was meant to calm emotions and ensure that the BFA AGA ran smoothly without any hitches,” an insider claimed.
According to sources close to the BFA National Executive Committee, the BFA second vice president Marshlow Motlogelwa was opposed to the DC sponsorship launch insisting that the money be deposited into the BFA account first.
“Motlogelwa as the man responsible for finances did not want the sponsorship to be launched before the money was disbursed. He was also not convinced that the sponsor has the capacity to sponsor the BFA with P3 million,” sources said.
BFA Chief Executive Officer, Mfolwe Mfolwe told Sunday Standard sports that there were “some pointers in the contract that needed to be amended first. Lawyers from both parties are working on it and we expect them to conclude the amendments next week.”
Asked to explain what the pointers were, he said, “as you are aware DC travel is a travel agency so there was a clause in the contract that was binding us that whenever we travel we must give them preference but as we get subvention from the government we have to open the process up to competitive bidding and take the cheapest offer.”
Mfolwe was confident that the sponsorship deal will materialize. He said that the sponsorship will not be like the controversial P65 million Munhunamtapa sponsorship that never saw the light of day. Oscar Kubara in 2008 raised the BFA and the premier league’s hopes high by promising to sponsor the elite league to the tune of P65 million. It is still to be seen if the DC Tours sponsorship will not be a repetition of Kubara’s stunts.
Meanwhile the 17 RFAs were last week given P15 000 each by the BFA to run their regions. The money will be used on administration and payment of match officials/referees.
