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…OWS cuts the club’s agreed sponsorship amount!
Sankoyo Bush Bucks continues to experience financial crisis which has been blamed for the team’s poor performance since the beginning of the 2023/24 season. Ngurungu is languishing at the bottom of the log without any accumulated points in all four games played.
Sankoyo recently received a sponsorship deal of about P750 000 from Okavango Wilderness Safaris (OWS), with the main mission of returning to the elite league, Botswana Premier League (BPL).
Ngurungu’s vice chairperson Sekai Morotsi has however told Times Sport that the club is still in a deep financial crisis despite the P750 000 sponsorship further revealing that the money was also reduced to P450 000.
Morotsi revealed that at the beginning of the new 2023/24 season they only received P75 000, the money which he said was only used to buy players as well as for pre-season preparations. According to him, the club as of now is in a financial mess though Sankoyo Tshwaragano Management Trust (STMT) is doing everything possible to help it.
The vice chairperson is of the view that the change in the sponsorship deal has affected the morale of players and technical staff noting that many expectations were attached to the fact that the team had something to work on highlighting that the team was promised to receive P 250 000 per season for three years.
“The change of sponsorship affected us, especially the players who have hoped that their welfare will be taken care of but now we are back to where we used to be,” he said, indicating that the Trust management is engaging with the wilderness management to see if there is anything that they can do to rectify the situation.
For his part, STMT General Manager Ramah Samakata assured that the Trust will always be behind the club revealing that they allocated P100 000 for the team last season, at the beginning of the year, the money which he acknowledged has already been exhausted.
On top of the P100 000, Samakata revealed that they helped the team with an extra P105 000 for fuel and bus maintenance adding that they continued assisting the team since the beginning of the new 2023/24 season.
“We used P55 000 for fuel and P50 000 for bus maintenance and we will continue to help the team whenever we have the means to help because we care about its welfare,” he told this publication.
The team is languishing at the bottom of the log with no points after losing all 4 matches against Mbalakalungu, Motlakase, Green Lovers, and Calendar Stars. Ngurungu will today (Friday) travel to Nshakazhogwe to meet Makungulupeswa FC at Nshakazhogwe Primary School.
In other matches to be played tomorrow, Calendar Stars will welcome Tsabotlhe FC at Caledron grounds, Santa Green will travel to Serowe to face Green Lovers at Masilo grounds. At Palapye sports complex, Mbalakalungu are visitors to Motlakase Power Dynamos while Peace Makers welcomes Chadibe FC at Semabaje grounds. Botswana Railways Stadium will host Pilikwe United and BR Highlanders FC match with all the games starting at 1600 hrs.
