Rollers, Chiefs honour �meaningless� play-off
Boitumelo Khutsafalo | Thursday July 14, 2016 10:56
The match is scheduled for the Francistown Sports Complex on July 23.
Chiefs spokesperson, Clifford Mogomotsi whose side has lost a number of key players and coach Mike Sithole in the off-season, said they will fulfill the fixture for the sake of football. Mogomotsi said they cannot recall players whose contracts have elapsed and others already in pre-season with their new clubs.
“We will just honour the match not because we want to decide something. Clearly there is nothing to decide with this match. The integrity of the sport has been jeopardised through this play-off,” he said.
The two clubs, Botswana Football Association (BFA) and the Botswana National Sport Commission (BNSC) met on Tuesday to deliberate on the play-off and the two teams are expected to use the available players.
A statement from the BFA says all the parties were committed in bringing the season to its conclusive end. The game was originally scheduled for last month, but was postponed at the last moment because of Zebras’ participation at the COSAFA Castle Cup in Namibia.
Rollers spokesperson, Bafana Pheto said they are ready to play despite the fact that they have lost some of their key players whose contracts elapsed. He said they were always ready to abide by any decision despite the fact that they had issues regarding compensation for the costs incurred before the game was postponed last month.
“The issue was that we had requested for the costs we incurred to be covered and we asked that they (BFA) refund us or they give us the stadium so that the two teams share all the gate takings.
That way we would be able to recover some of the costs. So they availed the stadium,” he said. Rollers have already lost Jerome Ramatlhakwana and Sekhana Koko who were among key players. They are also without the likes of Obonye Moswate who has joined Orapa United.
Chiefs on the other hand seem to have suffered an even huge blow with both the coach and his assistant, Sithole and Michael Mogaladi, having left for Jwaneng Galaxy. They are also without Tendai Nyumasi, Lemponye Tshireletso and Onalethata Tshekiso whose contracts expired.