He stated that the league has deduced its plans for the commencement of the league. For the past few seasons, the local league has started later than other leagues across the globe. Normally in these past few seasons, the league commenced around October but the BFL chief is confident that the league will start earlier this time around.
“The league has concluded its plans for the start of the new season and the fixtures for the new season have been drafted,” said Mbatha in an interview with Sport Monitor.
He said they are waiting for the Board meeting which takes place this week to approve the 2023/24 league fixtures. “Fixtures have been drafted and we now await the Board meeting of August 16 to go through the fixtures and approve them,” he said. Mbatha further said after the fixtures have been affirmed to by the Board, the BFL will now have to wait for the Annual General Meeting (AGM). “We will then have our AGM where our shareholders will get to appreciate the fixtures during our meeting, which is set for September 2 this year,” Mbatha said.
Though Mbatha oozes in great confidence that the league will resume earlier than people thought, he also said that there are also grey areas that need to be dealt with accordingly. “We also need to be mindful of the work happening around securing the league's title sponsor, which also impacts when and how soon we will start the league,” he said. With regards to the sponsorship hunt, Mbatha said great progress has been made. He also highlighted that their hunt for sponsorship is not only for the league but also domestic cups. “There is progress in the search for sponsorships for all our properties including the league title sponsor, Charity Cup, the Top 8 trophy and also the Super Cup, which will include all the 16 Premier League clubs,” Mbatha revealed.
The BFL CEO revealed that it has really been a mammoth task for them hunting for the sponsorship. “Identifying and convincing sponsors to come back to football is a huge challenge and task considering the downtime necessitated by COVID-19 and other unrelated past relations with corporate Botswana, but we will conclude soon hopefully before start of the season,” he said. On other issues, the BPL CEO stated that they have been advised by the Club Licensing Department (CLD) that submissions that were closed on July 31 will need two more weeks to confirm the clubs' licenses.
Despite all the issues he raised with resumption of the league, Mbatha earmarks September as the return of local football. “If all goes accordingly, we should be able to start the league in September and the date can only be confirmed as soon as my Board has seen and approved the fixtures,” he said with confidence.
