What was destined to be one of the most entertaining football matches (for the weekend) turned into nothing but a national embarrassment and once again exposed poor planning by football authorities.
Angels won 5-0, but the clash will be best remembered for violent scenes that erupted between supporters from both teams, just after the hosts found the opener.
The source of the violence remains a mystery. Play was halted in the 19th minute (for about 30 minutes) as authorities tried to diffuse tensions between the supporters. Several supporters were bleeding profusely from their heads after sustaining injuries during the turmoil. The police and soldiers later arrived to calm the situation and the game later proceeded.
The First Division North league committee and the BFA were directly responsible for preparing for the clash. In an interview after the match, Olebile Sikwane, the BFA head of Competitions and Operations, said the weekend incident is very regrettable. “It is not in the spirit of sport to have such an incident. But I think we all rallied our teams.
That is why they went back to the pitch.” “I must admit it was an extra ordinary crowd. We had not anticipated such a big crowd. The issue of the venue was not a wise decision from our end. We didn’t expect such an attendance but all in all a capacity crowd is what Francistown and BFA should be looking forward to. Francistown needs such a crowd for the advancement of football and the economy of the city.
Other than that incident, I think it was a fairly successful event looking at the crowd and score line,” Sikwane said. He was reminded that the weekend scenes suggest that authorities have not learned any lesson because the incident is a true replica of occurrences at the Royal Aria stadium in the just ended league season. “We will have to look at ourselves as the BFA and see to it that we put mechanisms in place to protect the image of the game going forward and also our people,” added Sikwane.
There were chaotic scenes when Township Rollers played Gaborone United (GU) at the Royal Aria and authorities vowed that a similar incident would never happen again. Ahead of the match, there were complaints that the Royal Ari was a smaller venue to host Rollers and GU.
The Francistown Stadium can only accommodate 7,500 supporters but Sikwane said that they had prepared for 5,000 supporters and a contingency of 1,000 (supporters). “I want to believe that at maximum we had close to 6,000 supporters.” He added that there are no records of casualties or those arrested for instigating the chaotic scenes. Many people opposed the choice of venue for the Chiefs/Angels second leg match because of its small capacity and poor infrastructure as opposed to the iconic Obed Itani Chilume stadium.
They opined that the first leg clash (played last week) was a clear indication that hosting a high profile match at a small venue is not ideal. The first leg was played at the River Plate ground in Mochudi.
Although there was no element of violence, it was easy to tell that managing the crowd at River Plate was a tough task for authorities. On Saturday, just before kick-off, it became evident that the choice of the venue was not well thought. Some supporters struggled to get into the stadium. Others complained that they were only allowed to enter the stadium with 10 minutes having already been played.
