Botswana Football Association (BFA) desire to draw the curtains on the elite league 2015/2016 season seems to be hanging on the balance. Township Rollers and Mochudi Centre Chiefs are expected to meet in the league playoff that will decide the season champion prior to the start of the new season scheduled for next month.
In the latest twist to the league saga, Centre Chiefs communications manager, Clifford Mogomotsi has expressed doubts that their team will heed the call and honour the match. “There is no team, we don’t have players to play the game and the coach and his assistant are also not there,” Mogomotsi explained.
The Centre Chiefs communications manager revealed that contracts of some of the team’s key players who were with the team have since expired and they are already signed for other teams, making it difficult for the Mochudi side to assemble a team for the weekend encounter. “We have informed them of the fixture ahead and we are waiting to see if they can report to camp. We don’t have control on them because we don’t have contracts with them. Some of them have asked us what is there for them if they are to get injuries,” explained Mogomotsi on why the players find it difficult to honor the call. The outspoken Mogomotsi said if they cannot manage to assemble the team, they will write to BFA informing them about their difficulty.
He said it was in the best interest of everyone who follows football to see the season concluded. Mogomotis put in his two pennies worth, that the BFA could have waited for the Rollers case at Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) to rule on the way forward. He observed that many things will be complicated if they are to go ahead with the encounter. He said they will report to supporters on Saturday (yesterday) and whatever domes out of the meeting would be communicated to the BFA.
Mogomotsi explained that the game had to be played because if either party does not honour the fixture there is no how another can win the league with soft points. Mogomotsi fears “if we play and the BFA crowns champions, only for the CAS ruling to come in favour of the loser, we will see champions crowned three times in one season as two coronations would have been nullified.”
His counterpart Bafana Pheto communications manager of Rollers said they are ready for the encounter. “The team has been doing off season training in South Africa where they stayed there for almost two weeks. We are going to play though some of our players have gone but we have a team to play. We encourage our supporters to come in number to rally behind the team,” Pheto said.
On the CAS case Pheto dismissed Mogomotsi saying, “Rollers wrote to BFA informing them of our case before CAS and proposing that the league be stayed pending resolution of the case, but the BFA refused.”
Why are they talking of the CAS case now? And it is not their case it is Rollers’ case,” Pheto charged.
