Women's Champions League gives BFA headache
Kabelo Boranabi | Friday February 5, 2021 10:30
The continental body has proposed that for the first time in history, an African women’s club tournament will be played this year. CAF announced it intends to kick off the preliminary qualification round between May and July. However, plans for Botswana to have representation at the tournament have been hard hit by the coronavirus (COVID-19).
Speaking to Mmegi Sport, BFA head of women’s football Tsholofelo Setlhoko said the intention is to take part, but COVID-19 has thrown spanners in the works. The women’s league is played at a regional level and the BFA is in the process of establishing a national competition. “We would like to play in the Women’s Champions League of course, but it is difficult to prepare for that. At the moment CAF has not communicated fully on how we are going to play the tournament.
Talks are underway and we are waiting for their communication so we can plan around that. And locally, there are talks that football has been suspended but we are yet to receive formal communication from the ministry and that causes great confusion.”
“We had hoped that we will have teams that finished higher in the standings last season, play a tournament to determine the team that will play in the Champions League. We had initially set that for June but with a lot of uncertainty, we are yet to formalise our plans. It has been a difficult period on our side,” he said.
Meanwhile, Setlhoko said the regional league will have four new entrants as Tswapong, Chobe and Central South, and Selebi-Phikwe, have shown interest to play next season.
“Over the weekend, we had a course for representatives from four regions who want to join the league. We have four new regions and that will make a total of 10 regions for the women’s football leagues. This is a way to prepare for the upcoming season,” she said.