Lechaena's Rollers move under scrutiny
Kabelo Boranabi | Friday June 1, 2018 13:00
Rollers singed Lechaena on a two-year contract at the beginning of last season from Top Stars soccer academy.
Kwena ABC claims that, Top Stars’ manager, Lovemore Mpofu has ‘stolen’ the player from the team thus benefiting some rumoured amount of around P30, 000 on the player’s move to Rollers.
Speaking to Mmegi Sport, Kwena ABC development coach, Moreetsi ‘Juluka’ Moremi accused Mpofu of forging his signatures in order to seal the deal with Popa.
Moremi said the 20-year-old attacker has been in his team’s books since 2010 when he was just 12-years-old under the registration book No.B165. He said he agreed to loan the player to Top Stars, but was shocked to find that he has been sold to Rollers without his knowledge.
“We loaned Boyo to Top Stars. He then represented a number of teams in the league including, (Uniao Flamingo) Santos, GU (Gaborone United) and Miscellaneous and City Polars with Lovemore initiating the moves, it was at Polars, where he caught the eye of Rollers. We were fine with that because the player was gaining much-needed experience and he believed that at the end of the day he would return to us as per our agreement.”
“I was shocked to learn that Lovemore had secretly sold Boyo to Rollers. I only received P3, 000 for the Orange Book (registration book), now I demand my development fee as per CAF and FIFA requirements,” he said.
Moremi further revealed that he has proper documentation to prove indeed he has developed the youngster. He also said he had reported the matter to the Botswana Premier League (BPL) in January, but failed to resolve it.
“Lovemore and his team forged my signature so they benefited the development fee from Boyo’s sale.
I have documents to back what I am saying. We have been with the player since 2007 and properly registered him in 2010. I also have the agreement between me and his parents that was signed in 2007,” Moremi said.
Contacted for comment, Mpofu denied benefiting from Lechaena’s move and said Rollers only paid P5, 000 for the Orange Book whilst the signing on fee and development fee were not paid.
“I offered Boyo to Rollers, he impressed during the trials and was signed. However, the move was not monetary, as Rollers did not want to risk paying large amounts of money for a youngster who had not proven himself at the highest level,” Mpofu said.
“Together with his parents we agreed that he should just sign with hope we will negotiate for a proper deal once his current contract collapses. I did not benefit anything, Rollers paid P5, 000, P3, 000 was given to Juluka while the rest went to City Polars, and we were never paid the development fee.”
Rollers have since washed their hands of the issue and said they have paid what they believed was to be paid.
“A fee was paid to the team that presented the player to us the time he arrived here. Boyo has played for a couple of teams and we are just shocked why there is too much noise now,” Rollers’ team manager, Motshegetsi Mafa said.
The Botswana Football Association (BFA) on the other hand is not aware of the issue and will await a formal complaint.