Botswana Football Association (BFA) acting chief operations’ officer, Ernest Nthobelang, has defended their decision to bring changes in the management of the national Under-17 team which will be heading to the African Youth Championships in Morocco in two months.
While the technical team remains the same, the BFA has roped in Ramocha Tsiang as the new manager to replace Rapelang Tsatsilebe. Romeo Banjamin and Ernest Dintweng have been appointed security manager and kit manager, respectively.
It is the appointment of Tsiang which has raised eyebrows amongst football quarters. According to sources, his appointment comes as a reward for having been part of the campaign soldiers for the Friends Of Football in the build-up to the elections in July last year.
“Ramocha has no experience in managing a national team. There are experienced people who have been overlooked in order to reward him. The Under-17 team is going for a big tournament and I expected the BFA to take that into consideration,” said a source on Monday afternoon.
He further pointed out that some of the National Executive Committee (NEC) members are not happy with the appointment.
Sources further revealed that even the Diamond Zebras’ head coach, Kaizer Kobedi, is not impressed with the appointment.
“You need a happy lot when going for such tournaments and once you hear that the technical team is not happy the team is bound to fail,” the source added.
For his part, Nthobelang slammed those who are saying Tsiang is being rewarded. He pointed out that NEC met and deliberated over people who were on the short-list and they felt that Tsiang was the right candidate.
“What is said out there is not true because we appointed him with full confidence that he’ll carry out his managerial role well. We have no doubt that he’s capable and we don’t want to encourage the petty talk out there,” said Nthobelang.
The BFA official hinted that very soon they will call all the national team crew for induction. He stated that it is during the induction where the likes of Tsiang will be informed what is needed from them.
“We believe that he (Tsiang) is a responsible person and we need such a candidate to take care of the welfare of the players. The junior team needed such changes. The whole of NEC approved the appointment,” Nthobelang added. He said whether the Under-17 technical team is happy or not about Tsiang is not important because they are not forced to discuss the matter with him.
The Acting COO further said that they will bring more changes in different national teams in the near future. It is expected that BFA would get rid of the whole Zebras’ backroom staff before the 2014 World Cup qualifiers continue in March.
“The bad thing is that already some people have been told about the changes even before they are announced,” said a source at BFA.
