Coaches� body refutes bias claims
Kabelo Boranabi | Thursday October 26, 2017 14:59
Olebile’s remarks come after the BFCA released a statement on Tuesday condemning the behaviour of coaches in the league match between Township Rollers and Sharps Shooting Stars played on Sunday at the UB Stadium. The attack was seen as directed towards Rollers’ Serbian coach, Nikola Kavazovic.
The emotional match left Rollers’ marksman, Joel Mogorosi with a fractured leg and Kavazovic unleashed scathing attacks on his day’s opponents accusing them of having a small team mentality and intentionally inflicting injuries on his players. His Sharps counterpart, Keitumetse ‘Pio’ Paul, refused to be drawn into the melee, which he termed as ‘small talk’.
“If any statement has been uttered by any coach practising in Botswana it is a very unfortunate statement, which can tarnish the image of the coaching profession,” part of the statement from the coaches’ association read.
BFCA’s remarks sparked a public outrage on different social media platforms labelling the association as biased as they felt BFCA remarks were directed towards Kavazovic’s post-match interview.
“No, not at all. We are not biased. We do have expatriate coaches who are members of our association. We are representing every coach that is practising in Botswana regardless of their country of origin,” Olebile told Mmegi Sport. He further said the association’s remarks are not targeted at any of the two coaches involved, but to voice their disapproval at any misconduct that might have occurred on the day.
“The association has a code of conduct that all coaches should abide by. Coaches are professionals and like in any legal entity they have guidelines, which they should abide by.”
“As the association we ought to make sure that the image of the sport is not tarnished. We work with the BFA (Botswana Football Association) who are the regulators of football in the country and as the BFCA, our duty is to make sure that coaches do not say or do not do anything that might affect the image of football,” Olebile said.
He also acknowledged that both Kavazovic and Paul are not their members and that the coaches’ association does not have the power to prosecute. “We work with the BFA and if our findings show that any coach is at fault we will call him and take the matter to the relevant authorities. Like I said, the statement is not by any means directed towards coach Nikola. Until our investigations are done, no coach is at fault here.”
“Though the two coaches are not members, but we have a duty to see (to it) that all coaches conduct themselves in line with the regulations. Policies affect everyone, there is a compliance manual that is against the tarnishing of the image of football,” he said. Olebile said once the investigations are done they will send their findings to the Botswana Premier League (BPL) office. BPL chief executive officer, Thabo Ntshinogang on Monday said his office was awaiting the match officials report then investigations would commence.