Teams playing in the Botswana Football League (BFL) are set to return to the grounds next month to the jubilance of football fanatics as the elite league is expected to resume between the 10th and 18th of September.
The league’s Chief Executive Officer, Solly Ramochotlhwane told Times Sport that the board is still awaiting response of sponsorship renewal from Absa who sponsored the league last season. He indicated that once that is sorted the expectation is that the 2022/2023 season will then soon commence.
According to Ramochotlhwane, the total budget to run a successful league is around P40 million an amount which he pointed they never secured in the history of the Botswana football. Absa which is BFL’s banking partner has in the last season supported the league with P3.4 million.
However, Ramochotlhwane noted the that the Absa sponsorship is not enough to sustain the league adding that out of the total amount, P1.7 million is for referees, P 600 000 is for medical scheme while the rest is for staff salaries, transport and office logistics. He added that from the P6 million television rights, P4.8 million is given to teams as a grants.
“We need enough grant to fund teams to enable them to cover their travelling, accommodation and feeding costs because the current grant is not enough,” he noted.
Meanwhile Ramochotlhwane has appealed for teams to seek sponsors to sustain themselves even when there are no grants from the premier league. He noted that most of BPL teams hardly pay their players and travel on match days.
“Running a club is not charitable work therefore teams should go out there and find lucrative investors and negotiate bigger deals because on their own they need more than P7 million to be successful in a League,” he added.
He also advised teams to start club licensing, adding that each club should have professional and amateur sides to be competitive in the league.
