A routine complaint, which Township Rollers lodged against BDF IX's use of a player in the two teams' semi-final was bungled by excitable officials who did not seem to have the faintest idea what procedures to follow to address the situation. A member of the executive received the complaint against the use of Zambian striker Bernard Semakwezi, who Rollers allege is a defaulter without clear paperwork from his country's football federation. Instead of following the usual procedure of either stopping the game or letting BDF XI use the player with the game under protest the BFA chose rather to break its own rules. The player was removed from the bench on the day of the game.

BDF XI protested afterwards and BFA was subsequently found to have erred. This judgement spelled unprecedented repercussions on many fronts and once again exposed the BFA's incompetence. The sponsors - Coca Cola - quite rightly did not like the whole fiasco that ensued.

There is one thing clear though, football and football lovers are the greatest losers in this soap opera that has become football administration in this country. It is often easy to target BFA and it often complains that it is targeted unnecessarily, but how else can you explain this litany of errors and glaring inefficiencies?

The BFA started off by bungling the league sponsorship issue when it went head to head with community teams who wanted their individual sponsors' names, not the league sponsors', on their shirts. This happened after the BFA had gone ahead with that arrangement without consulting the teams. BFA also failed to address a long-standing issue of national team player conditions of service until the players threatened to boycott a game. Recently the BFA hired a national coach who does not have any experience in African football ahead of a much more experienced Stephen Keshi.

The BFA may be doing some things right but there is no question that they are getting most wrong. At the end of the day sponsors may tire of this roller-coaster ride and jump ship. One thing certain about corporate entities is that they hate uncertainties. BFA's method - if there is any - is steeped in uncertainty. If this continues, professionalism that has been the goal of the BFA will remain a mirage.

Today's Thought

Gentlemen, it is better to have died as a small boy than to fumble this football.

John Heisman: