A month ago, Mfolo Mfolo replaced his predecessor Goabaone Taylor as Secretary General of Botswana Football Association (BFA).
Having left under a cloud of alleged ineptitude, Mfolo’s hasty return to Lekidi, as the local football headquarters is called, has left many questions unanswered.
Not least because he is inept, as those detractors who wanted him shown the door at Lekidi would have had all to believe. Not even.
Mfolo is in fact one of the only three FIFA trained administrators in Botswana. The other two are Ashford Mamelodi and Thabo ‘Stiles’ Ntshinogang.
Rather, it is because of the nuggets of wisdom he shared with his predecessor Goabaone Taylor.
“Beware of the eyes (ides) of March,” Mfolo warned his predecessor. “You will obviously face challenges from both fronts, being the people you are leading and the board you are accountable to.”
“I am not going to shy away to say this many times. Some of the people you will encounter within football are actually enemies of the sport. The unfortunate thing is that you will either be working with them or accountable to them. Sleep with one eye closed and your mind open,” he warned.
Mfolo is not alone in giving such an advice. A couple of years before him, another former BFA secretary general Keith Masters had given a similar opinion.
“There is no doubt the actions of some members of the NEC can only be described as evil, disgusting and despicable and, very sadly for this beautiful country, it is these persons who have the responsibility for controlling football nationally.”
“It is little wonder that reputable companies shy away from sponsoring football in Botswana and who can blame them?” Masters asked rhetorically.
Given such a description of the convoluted environment within local football from many including Mfolo himself, the question now is, “why would he return to Lekidi? A place he so believes is full of deceitful, self centred people.
“I am a patriot,” Mfolo says. “I have only one country I belong to and that is Botswana. I have no other country besides this one.”
For the newly appointed BFA secretary general, that’s all there is to his comeback to the hot seat of local football.
He says while by virtue of his qualifications he can work outside the country, if and when he has to make a choice, he would choose Botswana ahead of any other.
“Even if I was to be fired tomorrow, I will still come back again and again if called to serve,” he says.
