Finger pointing as women�s league further delayed
Kabelo Boranabi | Friday October 13, 2017 12:19
The BFA decided that the women football will be played in regions in an effort to accommodate all teams in the country as the WSL was contested by teams in the South regions. A year later the new project is yet to kick-off, three months into the football season.
Amid the delays, Mexican Girls coach, Oaitse Moeti said the region’s leadership has since gone quiet and the teams are in the dark about when the league will commence. Moeti, who is the former Super League committee secretary general, said clubs are inactive.
“The regions (leadership) are quiet. In Kweneng, we elected a committee specifically for the women’s football league but there has been no action to date. You may also find that some teams are registered but they do not exist; they are just names. We had a meeting in September, but that did not bear results and as we speak teams around have stopped training,” he said.
Moeti further shifted the blame to the region leadership as he said they are not keen to kick start the new project as their focus is solely on the men’s game.
“The region leadership is not doing anything. They are to blame; they have no interest in women football. We were told that there are fewer teams and those teams would merge into other regions but that is yet to happen. As teams we have long agreed to play,” he said.
Another coach who spoke on condition of anonymity shared Moeti’s sentiments. He however, said the club leadership was also at fault.
“After that decision was taken, communication from the region (leadership) was poor. Eventually we were called, there was confirmation from the leadership that we will start the league but it dragged on forever.
Teams became tired of the whole process and asked for clarity. A meeting was called on Monday (October, 9) to discuss the fixtures and everything. It was decided that a tournament will be played first then the league will follow after,” the coach said.
He further said at the Monday meeting, teams said the meeting did not form a quorum as some members of the region league committee were absent hence a resolution could not be taken.
“We cannot be sure of when the league games will be played or not.
We have another meeting tonight (Thursday October, 12) and that is where we will learn if both the league and the proposed tournament will be played,” the source said. A source at Lekidi Football Centre said administrators (both league and club leadership) are to blame for the delay. “Administrators are at fault. They cannot go against a decision taken by the BFA. Their duty is to make sure that initiatives taken at the top are implemented.
There is no way they can go against those decisions. Whenever there is a meeting they ask about sponsorship, but they should play first and profile their leagues so that they can outline their strengths and challenges before they seek a sponsor.
The men’s football is played everyday at regional level but where is the sponsorship? What makes them (women football administrators) special? You always have to start at the bottom before you can have an elite league. For them is just a case of clash of egos; there is nothing much to that,” the source said.
BFA regions coordinator, Phuthego Setete could not comment on the matter as he said is yet to make assessment on the regions. “I am still yet to make assessment on the regions. First I have to get information from the regions, to see what they have achieved thus far and what their challenges are,” he said. Setete assumed his role last week.
However there is light at the end of the tunnel as Mmegi Sport is reliably informed that the Francistown, Selebi-Phikwe and Chobe regions are ready to kick ball before the end of this month.