Mayor calls for effective football administration
Tapela Morapedi | Friday March 17, 2017 16:01
Mojuta said effective administration has all the hallmarks of a successful football team. The mayor was giving a keynote address at the closing ceremony of the Premier Skills Community Coach training session held here this week. The mayor does not give this advice as a layman.
The one-time football administrator for Selebi-Phikwe based No Mathata and Monang football teams have experienced the political mudslinging in football teams’ executive committees. Mojuta said progressive management of football clubs could be the one most important factor that could endear the teams to potential sponsors.
He appealed with the teams to elect distinguished people who are capable of leading the effort of transformation in the teams’ management. He noted that the true patriots of the game do not hold divisive ideologies that sacrifice good administration to serve their own selfish needs. “Let us believe in progressive management in running our football teams. Football is doing a lot in the development of our nation,” Mojuta said.
He pointed out that good administration translates into good performance of the clubs. He further highlighted that teams that are exceptionally run perform well and they fill up the stadiums thus making money. He said it is good business for the team and the community when teams attract numbers that fill up the stadiums during any football game.
Addressing the coaches who were trained by Premier Skills, Mojuta plea§ded with them to first self-introspect to build their own conduct before they could think of grooming youngsters. He said the country is grappling with various social ills among the youth and he believes that football and sport in general can normalise life in the communities.
“We have gone through a shameful moral decay over the years and I believe football can help,” he said. He advised coaches to play a mentorship role by being exemplary in the way they conduct themselves.
“If the kids are going to see you holding beer cans in the street, they are going to do the same because you are their role models,” he said. Mojuta revealed that insults hurled at kids at the playgrounds by their coaches could be ingrained in kids’ mind and form part of their behavioural pattern going forward. He stressed that community coaches should be able to lead and coordinate comprehensive strategies that could mould the kids into better individuals.
The chairperson of the Botswana Football Association (BFA) Tswapong region, Brown Kgobe shared Mojuta’s sentiments that good conduct by the coaches could positively impact on the kids’ development. Kgobe, who is also a product of Premier Skills, encouraged the coaches to develop good relationship with the kids’ parents so that the parents can have confidence in them and be assured that their kids are in good hands.
He pointed out that parents should be encouraged to bring their kids to the grounds and watch them play, something that he said could also encourage parents to nurture their kids’ talent. Kgobe advised the coaches that in development, results do not matter but what matters is the development of each kid to not only understand and play football but to develop life skills and good moral conduct.
Speaking on behalf of the participants, Kgosi Olebile from Tswapong Region thanked the BFA, the Premier League and the British Council for the Premier Skills programme that he said will go a long way in developing talent that will in the future represent Botswana in the world’s biggest football leagues.
He promised that they will put into practice the skills they have learned from the course to effect change in their respective communities.
“We have learnt many important aspects of coaching and community building and we will not disappoint. We will use the skills to produce grounded athletes,” he said, urging fellow participants to go and make a change at their respective regions. The participants were given certificates that qualify them to coach at development level. Their training ended with a sport festival where they displayed the skills learnt by training kids at the Selebi-Phikwe Stadium.