BPL partners with Huawei
Boitumelo Khutsafalo | Monday June 22, 2015 12:23
BPL chief executive officer, Bennett Mamelodi said the deal would help reduce lapses in communication between the relevant stakeholders in the league. The new partners will provide the club chairpersons, referees and the secretariat with gadgets.
He said immediately after the match, the referees at different matches will send the match reports to a central location. The secretariat will then receive the reports on their gadgets and comparison will be made between the online reports and those in the hard copy. The league will then send the reports, which will have all the information about the match including the yellow cards to the concerned teams.
Mamelodi said this would help reduce the number of protests in the league over yellow cards accumulated by players as was the case last season. The deal comes after Letlapeng lodged a protest last season against Mochudi Centre Chiefs over the use of inspirational captain, Pontsho Moloi when the two sides met. Letlapeng were of the view that Moloi who had accumulated three yellow cards in the season had not served suspension as per the Botswana Football Association (BFA) Play Rules and Regulations.
They wanted Chiefs to be docked points since they had used a “defaulter”. While the BPL disciplinary committee agreed that Moloi had accumulated three yellow cards, they found that Letlapeng were not the rightful complainants. The DC ruled that Police XI should have been the rightful complainants, but sat on their rights since Moloi should have served his suspension when both Chiefs and Police XI met and not against Letlapeng.
Mamelodi said such cases would be a thing of the past with the arrival of the new partners. He said with the technology that comes with the gadgets, all the clubs and the media will be notified of all the players that are on yellow cards and those that should serve suspension well before the games.
Meanwhile, Mamelodi revealed that BPL has made significant progress and are about to finalise negotiations over broadcasting rights. “Exciting times await in the broadcasting arena because where we are in negotiations, the league will not get less than what we are getting. We are also discussing co-ownership of the entire process,” he said.
He said with the Department of Broadcasting Services (DBS) in the final stages of digital migration, the actual on-air product will improve with additional cameras deployed as well as an increase in the broadcast of matches in the north.
“Furthermore, all proceeds from the on-sale of rights or match feed as well as acquisition of commercial content on television will be shared using a deliberate and specific formula,” he said.