Football flying towards another turbulence

Mqondisi Dube | Wednesday July 16, 2025 06:28

The storm is threatening to return after the calm following the weekend's Botswana Football League Annual General Assembly in Palapye. What had appeared a routine meeting of the 16 shareholders of the top flight turned into a fractious meeting with calls for the suspension of chief executive, Bennett Mamelodi, the headline grabber. The league has been here before and is not new to the controversy but it is how the board will navigate the ship out of the murky waters. Some clubs are still baying for the chief executive's blood and it was not just an episode, as the raucous from the Palapye meeting is expected to echo into the distance. Eyes are on the board on how it handles the situation, as proponents of the motion to remove Mamelodi might not rest until the mission is complete. The honeybadger mentality within football is widely documented, and this might be another saga that will rumble on.

The BFL, fresh from what was a competitive season, now comes face-to-face with a Herculean task and cannot undermine the rumblings, irrespective of their origins. The incident might test and stretch the Peter Kesitilwe-led board's crisis management skills, where the ostrich approach of burying the head in the sand is not an option. Just as the clubs gathered in Palapye, away from the capital city's madding crowd, reports emerged that Matebele had failed to submit work permits for their foreign coach and players for the past season. How this was allowed to unfold baffles the mind, where governance issues should be a top priority. The expectation is that full registration can only be processed at the end of submission of all required documentation, work permits included. But it appears someone slept on the job and it cannot be entirely Matebele's fault that there is this loophole. It is like walking through immigration controls without a passport.

In such a situation, there is a chain of fault, right from the security to the immigration officers. Tighter controls should be introduced to avoid such incidents that have the potential to throw the entire season's work into jeopardy. The Premiership is trying to reinvent itself as a clean product that can attract sponsorships, but how will this happen where there is the recurrence of the old, regular irritants? Football can ill afford a relapse, as we all know the repercussions of the bickering of the past, where there was a drawn-out saga over the BFL leadership. It was ugly and enduring, with no ultimate winner at the end of the day but the daggers-drawn affair left a damaging stain on local football. Right now, the BFL plane could be headed straight for turbulence and it is up to the board at the cockpit to safely navigate the football flight out of the approaching rough currents.