Sinking Sankoyo send SOS
Koketso Kgoboge | Friday January 8, 2016 12:12
The club’s players have not trained since returning from the festive season after only a handful turned up in protest over unpaid December salaries.
The team’s marketing manager, Obusitswe John said they are working around the clock to assist players with transport fares.
He said they hope to have a full squad for today’s (Friday) training.
John acknowledged the team is in debt and that chairman, Willie Dikgosana decided to quit as he was unable to pay off the debts.
He said the debts date back to the first committee that was elected immediately after the club gained promotion to the Premiership last season. He said the debts were part of the reason the former chairperson quit.
“I don’t want to delve much into the chairman’s retirement because some of the reasons he brought forward were too personal and pointing to other committee members.
However, one of the reasons he quit his position as he said was that he could not push his mandate because since he took over he had to continuously deal with the club’s endless debts.
“Understandably enough this is a serious financial crisis and no leader will want to be associated with these heavy debts, especially if they did not incur them,” Jonh said.
He said the club has sort intervention from the Botswana Premier League (BPL).
“Sankoyo is deep in debt. We are facing a very difficult financial crisis that we have sort intervention from the Premier League and they have promised to lend us a hand. It’s not entirely a financial bail out we are asking for, but also assistance to help address our players and bring calm in this unfortunate time,” he said.
John said they still hope to turn the situation around although the club relies on donations and gate-takings.
He said worse still the number of fans attending their matches has gone down as the team is not doing well.
The other challenge is televised matches particularly against big guns as fans prefer to watch from home.
“Last season we made around P900,000 from gate-takings, but it is not possible at the moment. Our expenditure is more than our income.
We still owe our former coach, Philani Mabena,” said John. He said there are some teams that are interested in recruiting their players as mass exodus looms.
“We are expecting a lot of movement in the transfer window. We understand our players’ frustrations more so they were not paid their December salaries. We know a lot of them will want to leave in search of greener pastures and we will not stand on their way. Players expected to leave and already had inquiries are Jackson Lesole, Thero Setsile, Morris Rusivho, Kutlwelo Mpolokang, Refilwe Senyame and Moagi Sechele.
He said players come and go and management cannot stop players from following their dreams.
He admitted that they do not expect the team to bring good results from their league match assignment against Mochudi Centre Chiefs due to their dire situation. Meanwhile, Sankoyo coach, Gadimang Tiiso was positive the players would return to training.
He said they recruited two strikers and a defender who are expected to start training with the team next week. He said they are also in the process of identifying a goalkeeper.
He said the club has resorted for intervention from the BPL.