The flop that is the Bosele Declaration
Boitumelo Khutsafalo | Friday March 3, 2017 15:13
Several resolutions were made including that all Premier League sides should have offices and full time staff. It was also agreed that among others, the league be run by club chairpersons as well as trimming down the number of teams in the league from 16 to 12. Delegates at the meeting were of the view that chairpersons of the clubs should form the board and run the league as opposed to the previous arrangement where the management committee was tasked with running the league.
The reasons advanced were that the chairpersons have the actual feel of what is needed since they are directly affected at club level.
Nine years on, almost all the resolutions are yet to be fully implemented. The document was seen as gateway to local football’s professionalism. An observer tells Mmegi Sport that the root cause of the failure to implement some resolutions has been the fact that chairpersons are now running the league.
“You cannot be the player and the referee at the same time. The clubs are failing to pay players’ salaries. So how are they going to ensure that they comply with the issue of having offices and full time staff? They would not want to incur extra costs and that is the problem,” the observer said.
The issue of the board running the league re-surfaced last season when the former Botswana Football Association (BFA) president, Tebogo Sebego and his committee suspended the board following some unpopular decisions they took. He suggested that a management committee be formed to run the affairs of the league since the board members at some point become conflicted. However, the motion was rejected at the general assembly.
The observer further told Mmegi Sport that despite the fact that the document is binding, it has failed to see the light of the day just like other documents. “The same people who are supposed to monitor and ensure that everything is complied with are the ones who are failing to comply. So that is where the problem lies.”
With the arrival of the club licensing, BPL sides were racing against time before the start of the season to comply. Most of the items contained in the club licensing were agreed upon in Selebi-Phikwe nine years ago.
Acting BPL chief executive officer, Thabo Ntshinogang admits that many stakeholders are not happy with the progress made thus far in as far as implementing the Bosele Declaration resolutions are concerned. He said at the moment he is not privy to the information on what could have actually led to the failure to implement the document.
He however said some attempts have been made in different forums like professionalism workshop to try and implement some of the issues that are similar to those in the Bosele Declaration.