Coach Butler must apologise

Thuso Palai | Wednesday August 19, 2015 11:54

 

We all know that Butler has in the past attacked the BFA on social media and had public spats with journalists and supporters on social media, all we have heard off the transgressions is that, ‘the CEO is doing something about it’.

Well, others have been harshly reprimanded at the first instance of any transgression, and Butler hasn’t. Atleast for all I know. To atleast give the BFA the benefit of the doubt, President Tebogo Sebego was recently quoted saying that CEO Kitso Kemoen will look into the matter.

The burning issue right now is the much talked about spat between Butler and Mochudi Centre Chiefs over his statements about one Mochudi Centre Chiefs player. And I’m inclined to agree with Centre Chiefs that Butler was unfair on Lesego Galenamotlhale to make such disparaging remarks about him and he should apologise to Galenamotlhale, Mochudi Centre Chiefs and the football fraternity in Botswana. As national team coach he should build and disparaging a player in public is no way to go about it.

Centre Chiefs have stood by their word that none of their players will honour the national team call-ups until Butler has apologised and as of this week, we are at a stalemate as it looks like Butler has refused to apologise. If he had, the Centre Chiefs players would have been at the national team camp this week.

So it’s about him and whether he wants to apologise or not and not about the football decision he has to make. And all the while the BFA was for a long time quiet. Or maybe they are doing something and we are just not aware of it. I will give them the benefit of the doubt.

I’m one person who always apologises to the next person if they feel I wronged them. And that is being the bigger man. Apologising to another person is not such a bad thing, and I wonder why Butler would not apologise to Centre Chiefs if they feel wronged.

At times one just has to apologise to maintain peace, but that is clearly not how our Coach sees it. The current situation alienates players and makes some players lose confidence in the coach if he cannot be the bigger man. Maybe to him Centre Chiefs are unreasonable to demand an apology, but to be the bigger man, maybe he should just apologise and we move on. I have been made to believe that the BFA has engaged Centre Chiefs to try and resolve the rather unnecessary issue at hand, and my hope is that it will be sorted out as soon  as is possible.

If only he had apologised a long time ago, we wouldn’t be talking about this issue and it wouldn’t have been so blown out of proportion. In fact, it would be water under the bridge  by now. He would have come out as the bigger man in all this, and the Centre Chiefs players would have been in national team camp this week. Instead, we are still talking about something that should have been resolved with a simple apology.