Kabelo Bosilong of the Confederation of African Football (CAF)claims Botswana Football Association (BFA) club licensing regulations fail to match expectation.
CAF club Licensing officials, were in the country at the invitation of BFA to assist in club licensing regulations.
“The club licensing regulation requirements did not speak to what is on the ground, they were unrealistic. That is what we have picked,” observed Bosilong.
“The objective is to professionalise clubs and football as a whole. The regulations should speak to reality because the intention is not to punish but to assist clubs to develop further and become professional.
On the way forward Bosilong said that ‘there is need to re-draft the regulations so that they speak to reality and what is on the ground.’
“The re-drafted guidelines should have timeline objectives as to when what is to be achieved when. It is not realistic to achieve all objectives at once without timed guidelines for each” he advised.
He said during the tutoring workshops he told BFA and premier league officials that the club licensing is not to punish team but to build.
As such, he said where there are challenges, there is a need for evaluation to understand the problem so that if there is need for realignment of an objective it can be done.
At one point the BFA club licensing committee deducted points from teams for failing to honour the required regulations.
Asked if it was right, Bosilong said he could not say answer whether the actions taken at the time were right or wrong and emphasized that football is run by statutes and rules.
“football is run by rules, regulations and statutes. You have to understand that club licensing is meant to assist clubs to professionalise,” he said.
He explained that they will be drafting the recommendations to the BFA for them to see and implement.
“The regulations will be timed lined and speak to the reality on the ground so that all flaws will be kicked out and good results will be guaranteed. The objective will be attained over a period of years if they are to speak to realities on the ground,” he said.
The requirement according to the instructor should not be imaginary but goals that can be accomplished. To him the BFA club licensing regulations were to high and unrealistic to achieve looking at the challenges faced by teams.
Bosilong commended the premier league clubs for coming out clear and explaining to them the challenges they face, ‘unlike in other countries where everything is sugar coated.’
“Here the BFA and premier league clubs were honest and sincere in their deliberations” he observed.
In his parting words, Bosilong said the nation should be ready “be ready for change.”
Asked whether the old regulations should be suspended for the time being, he said “I cannot say that what I know I that the old one did not speak to reality. We are drafting the new regulations that will be relevant to Botswana situation and we expect to deliver them in due course.
Approached for comment BFA’s mouth piece, Tumo Mpatane said as the BFA leadership they will look at the recommendation from the CAF officials and map the way forward.
We want football to be profession and we are going to study the recommendations and implement them so that at the end of the day football become the winner and there is developmental progress” explained Mpatane.
He said it is in the interest of the BFA to do good and implement the recommendations. He could not pre-empt what they will do with the current guidelines while they are waiting for the CAF recommendations.
As some of the club requirements, premier league tams are to have at least, one active youth team, must have operational office, must have contracts with facility owners among others.
