Gilika is new BMC owner?
Lekopanye Mooketsi | Thursday October 16, 2014 14:42
Sources within the club revealed that the Ghodrati family handed over the team to Gilika at the beginning of the season.
Gilika was appointed as the BMC chairman at the beginning of September.
The source revealed that in order to assist Gilika, the Ghodrati family would finance the team until the end of December as the team is in a transitional period up to December.
Contacted Tuesday, team manager Nelson Radijeng said they were holding a management meeting the same day. However, Radireng said he was not aware that the team has been handed to Gilika, adding that he has only read about that on social media. For his part, Gilika denied having taken over the Lobatse team. He said they were engaged in discussions and nothing has come out yet.
Gilika said at the moment he was focusing on their weekend game against cross town rivals, Extension Gunners and did not want to discuss matter. He said he was appointed as the BMC chairman to ensure that the team did well. He added that since the league started, he did not have time to do other things.
Gilika said they were going to hold a press conference very soon to discuss the matter. “We have not finalised everything,” he said.
He threatened to fire anyone who might have leaked the “wrong information”, emphasising that he has not taken over the team.
Botswana Premier League Chief Executive Officer, Bennett Mamelodi said they have not been formally informed that the team is under a new ownership.
He said they only knew that Gilika has been appointed as the chairman.
BMC has been part of the Botswana Meat Commission (BMC) in Lobatse since the 1970s when it was playing in the lower divisions. In a bid to reduce costs, the ailing corporation decided to stop sponsoring BMC and ECCO City Greens, the Francistown based Premier League side.
The corporation then decided to sell the team to the Ghodrati family.
But the move sparked a protracted battle for the ownership of the team as the former committee members felt the community owned it.