Big sides secure berths in Independence finals
Koketso Kgoboge | Tuesday September 27, 2016 15:50
BOT50 has sponsored the Independence Cup competitions across villages and towns as part of the Golden Jubilee celebrations. In most areas, teams registered in leagues that are affiliated to the Botswana Football Association competed alongside teams that compete in the non-registered constituency league.
In Francistown, the derby between TAFIC and TASC will be revived when the First Division duo meets at the Francistown Sport complex.
In Serowe, Premiership sides Miscellaneous and Green Lovers have secured a berth in the MmaBesi Independence Cup final slated for the Serowe Sports Complex, while in Palapye, Morupule Wanderers will play against Division One side Palapye United in the final that will be played at Palapye Swallows grounds.
Meanwhile, the constituency league teams have left an impression in some areas even though they failed to reach the finals. Tswapong Region chairman, Brown Kgobe praised the constituency league teams that participated in the Palapye region.
“They (constituency league teams) faired well against big sides,” he said. “We are impressed with their performance and we have realised that most of their players are former Division One players. We are going to engage them after these games and see how we can bring them on board.” Kgobe, who is also a member of the local organising committee of the Palapye Independence Cup, said they were equally impressed with the attendance and they anticipate a bigger turn up for the final.
“The last time we saw this number of supporters in Palapye Swallows (ground) was when Rollers won the (2013-2014) beMOBILE League here and to take advantage of the situation, we have reached an agreement to make this competition annual and in the same format, with a similar turn up, we believe we will be able to get a sponsor in future.”
When quizzed about the competition in Serowe, Green Lovers coach, Othusitse Kootswele was also impressed with competition. He said they are looking forward to the final.
“The games were very interesting and they went on smoothly with good support from the locals.
We had a tough competition from all the teams and we had to be too tactical to prevail.
“Constituency teams gave us a good run for our money. We are happy with the competition and we look forward to the final against Miscellaneous.
It will be our last preparation match before our opening game of the league,” he said.