Mochudi Centre Chiefs hierarchy is having a hard time navigating the ‘Magosi’ ship out of its turbulent tide.
Relegated from the elite league two seasons ago and plagued by debts and internal strife, the once proud Kgatleng outfit is struggling with life in the lower division.
Magosi’s situation has not been helped by the untimely arrival of the novel coronavirus, which has halted all footballing activities in the country and curtailed teams’ financial income.
Despite all these challenges, Chiefs’ hierarchy remains optimistic they can steer the Magosi ship past the turbulent tides and stabilize it.
The current committee, whose sole responsibility is to reawaken and rejuvenate Magosi however has its job cut for them as they try to stabilize the team in the midst of covid 19 pandemic.
According to the team’s spokesperson John Marumo, COVID 19 has severely affected the Kgatleng outfit.
Marumo says due to crowd limitations as per the COVID 19 protocols, their Annual General Meeting (AGM) was postponed, thus leaving several issues in the team unresolved.
The AGM would have been used to report back to the general membership on the club status and chat a way forward for a quick return to the elite league.
Among issues on the table would have been the ongoing plans by the team to buy a premier league status, which would ensure a quick return to the elite for Magosi.
“Our major concern is the issue of status. There are negotiations ongoing to try buy status,” Marumo explained.
“However, looking at two majors issues which include complying with club licensing which entails having an office, being a company through transformation as well as having cleared off our debts, the question is whether we ready to be in the premier league” he said.
Marumo said they are currently working around the clock to try address all the issues before the resumption of football activities.
He said that depending on where they are in the process, they would then know if they are able or ready to get a status or not.
Meanwhile, Marumo said the team is swimming in a pool of debts, which dates from way back and were passed on to the current committee to take care of.
Among the debts are monies owed to the team’s two former expatriate coaches Bongani Mafu and Philani Mabena.
“It is true we owe two coaches Mafu and Mabena some money and they have reported the matter to FIFA. We have written to FIFA explaining our financial standings hence asking for an extension so that we can produce a report why we are not in a position to pay them at the moment.”
He further added that they managed to notify FIFA through a letter hence they are waiting for its response on the matter.
“We acknowledge the debt, and we will find means to deal with it because we are fully aware that it is ours. Judgment will be released on the 23rd of September 2020; we plan to engage a task team which will be released to the people soon. Their focus will be on the team’s debts, on how best to tackle them and ways to pay them off.”
Furthermore, Marumo added that their other challenge is the ongoing transformation efforts by Botswana Football Association (BFA), which to them have long been adopted but the right procedures were not followed.
“We are working towards meeting all requirements so that when we transform it is the real deal that will sustain the team going forward. This is because it seems we have not been complying at the society of registrars in the past, but at the moment we have dealt with that issue we are compliant.”
In conclusion, Marumo said the next step is to try move from being a society to adopt a company name for them.
“There is a company named Mochudi Centre Chiefs Limited that Ramocha Tsieng and Matshidiso Kowa owns with 50% each, we are negotiating with them to at least get some percentage from it if not all of it, so that the team can benefit from it all. We are hopeful that it will pay off, as we wait for their response to hand the company to the club.”
