BMC finally change ownership

BOITUMELO KHUTSAFALO
Staff Writer | Friday June 28, 2013 00:00

 

Following weeks of uncertainty regarding the takeover of BMC, businessman, Daruosh Ghodrati, finally assumed ownership of the club, it was announced on Wednesday. Ghodrati owns 80 percent stake in the team while the supporters remain with 20 percent.The new owner will assume the responsibility of paying players and the technical team as from August 1 this year. At the signing ceremony held in Gaborone on Wednesday, the head of Human Capital at BMC, Thomas Ntobedzi, said they will pay all debts accumulated by the club so the new owner could start on a clean slate.  'We shall pay both the players and the technical team until the end of July,' he added.

Ntobezdi pointed out following the commission's decision to disinvest from both BMC and ECCO City Greens, they are happy to have found an interested party to take over BMC, the club. He said they would continue to look for potential investors for ECCO. The Commission took a decision early this year to gradually pull out of sponsoring the two teams because of financial challenges. They had set October as the deadline month for the complete pullout. With BMC now in new hands, the search for the takeover of Mamoja Diskie continues by both the commission and the current executive committee of the team.

Speaking to journalists at the signing ceremony, Ghorati said his interest in the team was primarily to take the club and Botswana football to a new level. He said making profit at this point is secondary. 'We are in the processing of re-branding the team which will see us coming up with a new name, logo and colours. He also revealed that coach, Daniel Nare will form part of the new team, which in the next few weeks will have set up a committee. The team will be based in Lobatse and will continue to use the same training ground until the new owner and his committee find an alternative.

Meanwhile, indications are that Kenanao Kgetholetsile, Leutlwetse Tshireletso and Motsholetsi Sikele will don the blue and gold jerseys at Township Rollers despite uncertainty over their transfer. In a media statement released on Tuesday, BMC, through the acting chief executive officer (CEO), Akolang Tombale said any transaction carried out by the dissolved committee were null and void unless approved by the commission. The three players joined Rollers under the dissolved committee and there were reports that some members of the committee as well as the commission were not aware of their transfer.

Speaking to Mmegi Sport on Wednesday, Ntobedzi said they touched on the issue during their meeting last week. He said they would not want to stand in the players' way, but would like the transfer fees for the players to be transferred to the commission. He said the commission would then transfer the money to the new owner so that he can find replacements. The committee was dissolved after weeks of accusations and counter-accusations among the committee members.