Clubs freeze plans as wait drags
Kabelo Boranabi | Friday August 7, 2020 12:37
Action was suspended in March following the outbreak of the coronavirus (COVID-19), and teams have not taken to the field since.
The clubs face dilemma on players’ salaries and contracts while the preseason preparations and recruitment has also been affected.
Morupule Wanderers’ general manager, Kitso Maswena said the club is dealing with a financial situation and has resorted to paying players 75% of their salaries.
He said they await guidance from the Botswana Football Association (BFA) on the relief fund before a decision on the running players’ contracts can be made.
“We were playing a league without prize money. We had to rely only on the grants and gate takings. So you can imagine how much we made this past season. It is not really much; this has affected us a lot. Since April we had decided that the players would get 75% of their salaries and the decision still remains as we try to minimise the costs,” Maswena said.
“We also have players whose contracts ended in June and July and we decided against renewing them because we are not sure when the league will start. Until then we would not make any decision. We hope to get direction from the mother body, in terms of how much the players would get from the relief fund maybe we would come up with a plan. Hopefully, we will get the answers at the assembly on August 22, from then we can map a forward as a club.”
Gunners’ communication manager, Gerald Mahumba said the management was scheduled to discuss players’ future this week. He, however, said the break provides an opportunity for the club to fix its administrative issues.
“For now we have not engaged that far in terms of players’ contracts. We were supposed to have a meeting on the issue on Tuesday, but had to postpone because of the lockdown. We are dearly affected, but we see this as an opportunity to get our house in order administratively. As we await the green light we should be in a position to compete both on and off the field,” he said.
The same sentiments were shared by Jwaneng Galaxy’s spokesperson, Tankiso Morake.
“From where we are standing we have frozen all the plans now and next season. We do not know what is going to happen. The best thing is to wait for direction from the BFA, everything has been put to a stop,” Morake said.