In-disciplined Clubs Face The Chop
Kabelo Boranabi | Monday June 3, 2019 16:11
Speaking at the Footballers Union of Botswana (FUB) congress over the weekend, Shah warned that teams that fail to get licensing in the next season would be eliminated from the elite. The move is in line with BPL efforts to improve players’ welfare.
“We gave many clubs provisional licenses and a lot of the provisions were not implemented. This year clubs must fully comply. If means that clubs are eliminated then it should be so.
We will reduce the number of teams to whatever number is possible. No player will go home at the end of month without pay. I hope the licensing committee will fully enforce the rules and regulations,” Shah told the gathering. Clubs were expected to submit their budgets to the national association for inspection, while teams were required have to spend within their means.
The BPL was lenient on teams initially.
For instance, clubs were supposed to be suspended, or not issued with a license, but still remain a member of the Botswana Premier League (BPL).
However, Shah said there has been compliance on the side of clubs.
The situation has resulted in disrespect for to the league.
“We cannot keep clubs that are financially in-disciplined in the league.
By doing that, we would be disrespecting the league; we have reached at a point where clubs should be financially stable to participate in the league.
Therefore, we will be working with the (licensing) committee to make sure that all clubs fully comply.
We are protecting our players and we want to avoid issues in which teams forfeit league due to lack finances.
So in the next season clubs that are not stable will not be allowed to participate in the league,” he said.
The regional football governing body, CAF gave BPL clubs waivers in 2016 and in 2017.
However, the First Instance Body (FIB), which is responsible for issuing out licenses for Premier League sides, revealed that only five teams acquired full licenses.
The teams are, Township Rollers, Orapa United, Jwaneng Galaxy, Security Systems and Police XI. They satisfied all the requirements and attained 100 points.