Worrying early signs at Calendar Stars

Mqondisi Dube | Wednesday August 27, 2025 12:04

The newcomers hardly competed and struggled to get maximum points in a hard, painful debut campaign that expectedly ended in demotion back to the First Division. In hindsight, it was a much-needed reprieve from their season of toil and torment, where they persistently looked like fish out of water. One had to wait until February for Chadibe to register their first Premiership victory, which came against fellow strugglers Nico United. The quality of Uniao Flamengo, Santos, and Chadibe FC raised a lot of questions. There was an evident gulf in class between the two sides and the rest of the group, as the strugglers appeared to suffer from an identity crisis. It could be argued that they were either too good for the First Division or too poor for the FNB Premiership, if not both. Unfortunately, there is no division in between that could have accommodated their ilk.

Their performances stood as undeniable evidence that they neither belonged to the First Division nor the Premiership. But the Chadibe FC and Santos stories probably mirror the classism that exists between the two divisions due to structural defects. Often, two of the three sides promoted from the First Division always find the going tough in the Premiership. The transition obviously presents its own challenges, from a lack of competitive balance to poor remuneration. Promoted clubs are usually on their own and have to find their way in a tough environment, in the process learning the hard way. This results in the imbalances and often one-sided outcomes like the one witnessed between a marauding Mochudi Centre Chiefs and a sorry Calendar Stars over the weekend. The situation facing most promoted sides leaves one wondering if the composition of the elite clubs is then truly representative of the quality that should earn the right to sit at football's top table. There is a feeling that some clubs belong to some no man's land, which, like the imaginary Sugar Candy Mountain, exists between the First Division and the Premiership. Some clubs are simply stuck in the middle ground and are ultimately in the Premier League to add numbers. The new FNB Premiership season is just two rounds old, and a familiar pattern is developing at the basement with concerning signs for the new boys from the Ghetto, Calendar Stars.

The team has already presented itself as the elite boys' punching bag after losing to Gaborone United (although they fought better in a 1-0 loss) and Mochudi Centre Chiefs. It is the manner in which Calendar Stars lost the Chiefs match, shipping out half a dozen goals, in a contest that brutally exposed the divide between the haves and have-nots. What exacerbates the situation is that clubs went into the season without financial bail from the Botswana Football League as talks with sponsor, FNBB, over a new deal continue. There is still the issue of the broadcast rights deal to be concluded for the BFL. The uneven financial field heavily impacts clubs that are reliant on BFL handouts, as most struggle to even get decent individual sponsorships that could aid them to effectively compete in the demanding Premiership.