Olopeng says BFA abused Debswana sponsorship
Koketso Kgoboge | Friday March 4, 2016 11:55
Olopeng is a member of the BFA National Executive Committee (NEC).
He said: “It will not come as a surprise if we lose this sponsorship. We have to take the blame as BFA. We disappointed Debswana when they have given us the will.
“The sponsorship was run at Lekidi yet they had no capacity to run it, we (the coordinators of the league) were kept in the dark about how everything was carried out.
“All we know and appreciate is that teams got the P50,000 grants and referees were always available and the fixtures were never disturbed.”
Olopeng said a large chunk of the funds from the sponsorship were used to run BFA business at Lekidi.
“About 60 percent of the sponsorship ran administration at Lekidi not the administration of the First Division league,” he added.
“We received only P15 000.00 to manage the league.”
He said mismanagement of the sponsorship impacted heavily on the teams and the NEC has raised the issues, which fell on deaf ears. It was agreed that the teams would receive playing kits at the beginning of each season but this happened only once, at the beginning of the season. Teams now play with their own kits.
The NEC raised this issue at a BFA meeting and it was agreed that teams provide quotations for playing kits.
Unfortunately, it is the end of the season and teams are still without kits.
“We don’t know what happened,” he said. “The situation on the ground is unfortunate, teams also struggle with match balls.”
Olopeng said the First division must be autonomous. “We should be allowed to run and handle our negotiations with our sponsors not to sit back and watch others manage the sponsorship on our behalf.
“If we lose this sponsor we are heading back to crisis where teams will be paying referees for themselves.”
As the curtain closes on the three year P6 million deal, negotiations to renew the deal are yet to hit the Debswana boardroom.
The chairperson of the sponsorship committee, Marshlow Motlogelwa, confirmed that talks haven’t started.
“The correct status is we have just completed auditing the last sponsorship and we will be handing to the secretariat who will conduct the sponsorship talks. We haven’t opened the negotiations with the sponsor yet,” Motlogelwa said.
BFA chief executive officer, Kitso Kemoeng refused to comment. “I am not in a position to answer to that now,” he said.