Zakhem to leave BFL post
Kabelo Boranabi | Monday September 4, 2023 14:11
It is mandated to run the affairs of the Botswana Premier League (BPL) and First Division Leagues. In the annual report, the BFL chief executive officer, Senzo Mbatha said the interim Board of Directors will vacate their seats at the end of 2023-2024 football season.
Gaborone United (GU's) Nicolas Zakhem currently sits as the BFL Board chairperson and he is expected to leave his post by the end of the 2023-2024 season. He sits alongside Jagdish Shah, Masego Ntshingane, Tebogo Sebego, Kagiso Mogocha, Johane Mchive, Mfolo Mfolo, Njabulo Gilika and Mbatha. “BFL has been in operation for two seasons now with the interim board of directors, whose term of office will expire at the end of the 2023-2024 season. A new board of directors with an independent board chairperson will take over the company’s management from the 2024-2025 season,” Mbatha said.
The BFL is also moving towards the reduction of the first tier league and the expansion of the second tier leagues. The entity has said by the end of the beginning of the 2026-2027 football season, the BPL will consist of 12 teams while the National Division League will have an increase of four teams to 16. The 2022-2023 annual report was made available to delegates at the BFL Annual General Meeting (AGM) held on Saturday in Gaborone.
Speaking at the gathering, the BFA president, Maclean Letshwiti bemoaned the snail’s pace of the BFL moving towards commercialisation and professionalism. He indicated that the BFL’s outlined initiatives are a manual copy of the ‘Bosele Declaration’ document and are only coming to effect 15 years later. “We did not do anything since 2008; committees we set aside and nothing happened.
FIFA lost millions of money coming to facilitate for nothing. So the reason you are behind as far as football in the world is due to us not anybody else. We were told there is no other way of developing football without commercialising it and professionalising it, a committee was formed to transform the game. The different models of the leagues were availed and all you had to do was choose the one suitable but nothing happened,” Letshwiti said.
The BFL has meanwhile distributed P1.6 million to clubs as grants while a total of P3 million was set aside as prize money. The top tier remains without a title sponsor, but the Department of Broadcasting Services has pumped in P7 million in the past season while ABSA Botswana, as a banking partner had a sponsorship value of P1.7million in the past season.