beMOBILE rewards three players
Staff Writer | Wednesday February 10, 2016 15:08
The winners; Pontsho Moloi, Kabelo Seakanyeng and Benson Shilongo each walked away with P1, 500 on top of the trophies.
The award, which has received criticism from some football commentators, has been running for six months now.
Township Rollers’ attacking midfielder, Segolame Boy was the first player to win it and went onto to retain it for three consecutive months before picking up an injury.
Moloi then won the award for November before Seakanyeng took one for December. At the time, Seakanyeng was still playing for BDF XI before he joined Gaborone United (GU) last month.
He is yet to make his debut as he is still serving notice at his current employer, the Botswana Defence Force. He was not present at the award ceremony due to work commitments. Shilongo is the latest to win it for the month of January.
Football pundits have been questioning the credibility of the award and what it intends to achieve but the sponsors, beMOBILE, have insisted that it is purely a commercial drive for the company.
The sponsor insisted that the award cannot be run anyhow better than the current format as it gives customers who also turn out to be football supporters an opportunity to express their views regarding outstanding player in the league.
Some football pundits have expressed displeasure with the running of the award and felt that players whose teams boast massive support are likely to have an unfair advantage over others.
However, the company spokesperson, Tiro Kganela had previously stated that if that was the case, then other players from other popular clubs like Extension Gunners would be winning every month.
The award runs parallel to the BPL player of the month award, which is adjudicated in a different manner.
While the be Player of the month award is purely based on the number of votes a player get from supporters, the BPL award is decided by a panel of experts dubbed the technical study group.