We have been inundated with requests for interviews by journalists and makeshift writers alike, but we have, up until now, declined to comment on the matter out of professional courtesy to the BFA and the Zebras. However, the BFA has not found it necessary to do the same and its CEO; Judge Mookodi, Technical Director; Sonnyboy Sethibe, Technical Vice President; Dintle Mphele and the President; David Fani have spoken on our sponsorship relationship on different forums. We find it mischievously unprofessional and possibly malicious that these otherwise seemingly intelligent men, speaking on behalf of the BFA, have made media reviews of a professional contract before first doing so with All Kasi as the other party to the contract and despite the fact that the sponsorship is still in effect. Notwithstanding the BFA's utterances on our relationship and without second-guessing the motives behind such utterances, the purpose of this press release is merely to tell All Kasi's side of the story that has been told many times already by the BFA over the last few weeks. We feel that it is important to give perspective to the whole discussion.
It must be noted that by publishing the advert with more than three months left on the All Kasi contract, the BFA has publicly cast doubts over our brand's continued association with the Zebras, willingly or unwillingly, which has led to a decline in the sales of All Kasi Zebras replica, which were on the rise with the team's imminent qualification for our country's first AFCON finals. Our company has suffered verifiable loss of business because potential customers are understandably holding onto their purses knowing that there could be a new Zebras shirt in three months. This unfortunate turn of events comes at a time when All Kasi looked set to recover costs expended in the Zebras sponsorship over the years and to possibly make what we presume is a well-deserved profit. It seems this is not to be. Mphele has gone on record to tell the Botswana Guardian that the advert was published to avoid the BFA being caught off-guard when our contract expires, which is surprising and misleading because we wrote to the BFA on May 11, 2011 informing them of our interest in continuing the technical sponsorship beyond the AFCON tournament. Last week, Fani went on record on BTV saying that several companies have expressed interest in sponsoring the National team since its historic qualification, an assertion that catches Mphele's reasoning off-guard and blows it way out of the waters!
