Masters� poison could be Sebego�s meat
Mqondisi Dube | Wednesday March 4, 2015 10:37
Keith Masters ceased to be a factor at the Botswana Football Association (BFA) the moment his office was raided leading to the alleged discovery of pornographic material.
Pornography was largely seen as his demise, but the writing was already on the wall long before the explicit images popped right in front of his investigators’ face.
But skeptics’ daggers were long drawn from the moment a freshly appointed Tebogo Sebego searched oversees for a chief executive officer.
Masters appeared to carry an impeccable record when he arrived from England, credited with turning around the fortunes of the Kent Football Association.
But within months into the job, it became apparent it was going to be a tall order for the Briton. Those who waited with bated breathe for Masters to fail; their champagne bottles were eventually popped when his demise was apparent.
Observers argue, Sebego was not prepared to fight for Masters’ stay after the BFA president questioned his work output.
The pornography case proved to be the proverbial sucker punch, but his exit was long on the cards.
If it were on the football pitch, fans would argue Masters never settled in the match. He was constantly hurried off the ball and on the odd occasion that he found the net, the goal was ruled offside.
He never found love- work related that is- on these shores. An elaborate commercialisation project probably soiled Masters report card with most of the red marks.
On arrival, he was seen as the man to push forward an ambitious plan to turn around the financial fortunes of an association ever-reliant on government for funding.
But exactly two years after his appointment, Masters cleared his desk with the commercialisation project nothing but a barely recognisable foetus.
In one of the interviews with Mmegi Sport, Masters had said the leasing out of Lekidi Centre facility would be key to a financially healthy BFA.
But nothing publicly took off and there was no immediate evidence that in the next 12months BFA, would be a financially viable entity.
Masters had promised to leave the BFA with a good balance sheet when he made his inaugural speech. But he never envisaged such a dead end. He has no option but to turn back, leaving the BFA still in financial dire straits.
Masters’ exit might provide Sebego with renewed vigour to hire a fresh man with the zeal to drive the commercialisation project.
It might be an opportunity for Sebego to redeem himself after, over time he has had to endure criticism for failing to deliver on pre-election promise.
Reports are that Sebego is hard at work behind the scenes in a new bid to revamp the BFA, which has suffered from persistent negative reports.
These include factionalism, nepotism and a generally lackadaisical approach, which has seen challenges inherited from the David Fani-era, persist with new verve.
While Masters has left a plum job which reportedly carried an P50, 000 monthly salary, it could present Sebego with thousands of opportunities to shuffle his cards and find a winning combination, with just over a year to the next BFA presidential elections.
Masters’ famous quote
“The only correct thing in that newspaper is the date,” he said referring to one local publication he accused of writing falsehoods about him.