Babitseng calls for football reset
Kabelo Boranabi | Monday August 10, 2026 06:00
Babitseng was speaking at the inaugural Football Pitso held yesterday in Gaborone under the theme 'Shaping the Future of Botswana Football Together – One Game. One Vision. One Future'. The gathering was meant to seek ideas to move football beyond personalities and politics by bringing together the entire football fraternity to determine the sport's future.
'This is not about the president of the Botswana Football Association, it is not about the National Executive Committee, it is not about one league, one club, one region or one group of people. Today is about Botswana football,' Babitseng said. He said the association had deliberately brought together clubs, regional football associations, women's football representatives, technical experts and administrators because lasting progress could only be achieved through collective responsibility.
'We have brought the football community together because we need to have an honest conversation about where our football is today, where we want it to go and what each of us is prepared to do to get it there.'
Babitseng said the local football scene had reached a point where difficult questions could no longer be avoided as it reached a level of near-stagnation. 'There are things we should be proud of. There are things that have improved, and there are people in this room who have given years of their lives to football, often without recognition. But there are also areas where we have not progressed as quickly as we should have. We cannot sit here and pretend that everything is fine. We cannot continue in the same way and expect different results,' he said.
He challenged delegates to question why the national teams were not consistently producing results, why clubs struggled in CAF competitions, why the country was producing too few players capable of reaching elite professional football and why the game continued to battle to attract commercial investment.
'If our national teams are not achieving the results we want, we must ask why. If our clubs are struggling to compete consistently at CAF level, we must ask why. If we are not producing enough players who can move into the highest levels of professional football, we must ask why,' he said.
He also urged football leaders to shift from assigning blame to accepting shared responsibility.
'When football is doing well, we celebrate together. But when football is struggling, we must also be prepared to say this is our problem, and therefore we must find the solution together.'
Babitseng said the recently adopted BFA 2036 Strategic Framework was intended to move football away from short-term thinking by building institutions capable of delivering sustained success.
Supporting that vision, BFA vice president and Technical Development Committee chairperson Tebogo Kamati unveiled a technical blueprint anchored on the BFA 2036 strategy, describing the country's qualification for the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations as a starting point rather than the destination.
'AFCON 2025 is the baseline. BFA 2036 is the destination. One national pathway is the work,' the presentation states.
Kamati argued that local football could no longer rely on national team camps and player trials to produce success.
'Football development is the system that produces performance. It is not a camp. It is not a trial. It is not one tournament,' he said.
He proposed a player-centred pathway that starts with grassroots participation, quality coaching and regular competition before progressing to talent identification, player development, clubs and eventually the national teams.
'National teams are the final output of this chain, not the first activity in it,' he said.
Using Botswana's AFCON campaign as evidence, Kamati said the tournament exposed weaknesses in preparation, player development and the transition from youth to senior football. The technical framework identifies eight priorities, including better planning, improved conditioning, stronger competitions, enhanced technical support and a seamless pathway linking youth football to the senior national teams.
He said the BFA intended to introduce a unified football philosophy built around one language, one curriculum and one connected national pathway while targeting the training of 200 CAF C Licence coaches, 50 coach educators, and 26 CAF Pro Licence coaches, alongside the establishment of regional technical centres to strengthen football development across the country.
'The solution is not more trials. It is more development, more games and better continuity,' Kamati said.
For his part, acting chief executive officer, Kago Mosinyi, said the inaugural Pitso was intended to ensure every stakeholder had a voice in shaping the future of the game.
'If you have a seat in this room today, it is because you deserve to be here. Every one of you has a role to play in Botswana football, and every voice represented here matters,' he said.
Mosinyi said the response to the gathering demonstrated that football stakeholders remained committed to growing the game.
The two-day Football Pitso concludes today (Friday) with delegates expected to adopt recommendations that will guide implementation of the BFA 2036 Strategic Framework and shape the future direction of Botswana football.