BFL admits branding failures
Chakalisa Dube | Saturday March 25, 2023 06:00
Responding to a Mmegi Sport inquiry, BFL CEO, Senzo Mbatha said they are working on closing the gaps. Towards the end of February, the league signed a sponsorship deal with Absa, which will run until the end of the season.
But the Absa branding and even that of the BFL has been missing in most matches, particularly in the northern part of the country. “We are aware that we have several shortcomings.
However, we are working towards improving our professionalism in the league and our member clubs, which will aid our efforts to have a commercial product that will attract more cooperate Botswana into our football,” Mbatha said this week. Even some officials have appeared to be clueless about the importance of branding.
Last week an Extension Gunners official was seen wearing a Botswana Telecommunications Corporation (BTC) branded hat during a league match against Eleven Angels at the old Francistown stadium. “We started branding at some matches because of few pitch-side advertising boards available. It is also evident that our member clubs are having challenges in this regard (branding),” Mbatha added. Mbatha said the BFL is planning an engagement session with representatives of its member clubs to facilitate the understanding of the importance of adequate branding during matches and creating a professional image for the league.
“The focus of this session is to deal precisely with these aspects and remind our member clubs of their obligations and what the regulations say about transgressions due to non-compliance. I have devised several compliance manuals that will be part of our uniform rules from next season to assist in professionalising the league,” the sports executive said.
He noted that some of the components of the manuals include requirements to host a match under BFL, communications, and marketing guidelines. The guidelines will focus on branding issues and communications under BFL, sponsorship obligations for the ball boys as well as scouts. “There will also be a kit manual which will focus on what and how should the respective playing kits be branded, sizes, colour contrast on the jersey number and names,” the highly rated sports administrator said. Mbatha also said the BFL will decisively deal with teams that continue to shun dressing rooms and instead resort to using buses. Some teams have a penchant for not using dressing rooms when they play away.
They often accuse home teams of ‘smearing muti’ in their dressing rooms. “Issues around the usage of dressing rooms, access to the stadium, and failure to adhere to the regulations are a matter of disciplinary sanctions. Football has evolved and there are mechanisms to deal with such behaviours,” he pointed out.