We need sober minds making decisions

Thuso Palai | Thursday June 18, 2015 18:22

For a long time we have been preaching this ‘we want to professionalise football in Botswana’, but we cannot make basic decisions that could help us towards that. Time and time again, the people who we have entrusted with positions, so that they make the right decisions for our football fail us dismally. In most cases they tend to make decisions that do more harm than good to our football. They tend to make decisions that break rather than build. This polarises the football community.

This applies across all spheres and levels of our Football, from the clubs through to the Football Association. And don’t mistake me to say all decisions are wrong. Yes, I might not agree with some decisions, and that does not necessarily mean that they are bad decisions, but the fact of the matter is that in most cases, our football administrators tend to do more harm than good. If almost everyone complains or has murmurs about a decision, then that is a clear sign that some application and a ‘for the good of the game’ decision was not done.

At all times, our administrators should look out and protect the image and reputation of our Football and it seems like in most cases they disregard that they are making those decisions on our behalf, and they tend to make decisions that favour them. Latest case in point being the decision by the Notwane and FCSatmos led BPL Board that decided to dock Sankoyo Bush Bucks 21 points. My issues is not the guilt or non-guilt of Sankoyo, but the apparent lack of application and disregard for the consequences of the decision. 

After a period of upheaval, whereby Sankoyo Bush Bucks was docked points and relegated, and later un-relegated, resignations by the BPL Chairman, Deputy Chairman and the BPL CEO, sanity finally prevailed and the storm seems to have settled. Atleast for now. The issue got countrywide attention and everyone seemed to be on the side of Sankoyo Bush Bucks as they were the underdog and the small fish. To many it seemed like the powers that be wanted to save Notwane and FCSatmos and instead relegate Sankoyo. Justifiably so as the BPL Chairman is a Notwane official while the BPL Deputy Chairman is an FCSatmos official.

Botswana Football Association finally made somewhat of a sober decision and reversed the decision. There was a hullabaloo following the decision and the reversal and many felt the wrong decision was initially taken. If it is so evident that so many don’t agree with a decision, then the one who took that decision should interrogate themselves.

We agree currently on the off-season and as much as teams and players introspect and deliberate on how they performed in the past season, our Administrators need to do the same. They need to take stock, get feedback from different quarters and look to improve. That is all that we call for. We need sober minds, making decisions to protect and nurture rather than break.