01 Jun 2022

Football Union of Botswana (FUB) and Botswana Football League (BFL) on Tuesday signed a Memorandum of  Understanding  geared towards ensuring the welfare of football players.

Speaking at the signing ceremony, BFL chairperson, Nicholas Zakhem, said the agreement would boost plans to professionalise  football in the country. 

“The signing of  this  agreement  is  a milestone in maintaining excellent relations between football teams and players in  order to attain positive  results which will be of  great importance to the  development of  the game ,” he said.

 Zakhem said players’ welfare remained BFL’s top priority.

He also urged FUB to facilitate involvement of clubs towards transforming from amateur to professional through a more refined conduct and behaviour even outside the football field.

“I am fully convinced that a healthy relation between teams and players will be of great benefit for football which will in the long run reflect on the national team rankings,” he said. 

BFL chief executive officer, Solomon Ramochotlhwane, said one of the key components of the agreement was establishment of the players welfare fund.

He further said the MoU would also pave way for a retirement pension for all registered professional footballers, adding that it was important for football players to prepare for life after retirement.

“We are aiming at establishing a welfare fund because we have realised that players are left impoverished at the end of their football career, therefore, the welfare fund will cater for the players’ needs upon retirement from active football,” he said.

He said since the MoU agreement dictated that professional footballers should be insured, the welfare fund would also focus on the establishment of a players medical insurance. 

He said teams were financially stretched to cater for injured  players resulting  in some players  being  permanently handicapped. 

“Over 500 players will be enrolled in the medical insurance upon the implementation of the MoU,” he said.

He said BFL was similarly striving to live up to club licensing requirements with regard to players payments to avoid football being dragged before the courts of laws due to labour disputes.

For his part, FUB secretary general, Kgosana Masaseng applauded the signing of the MoU, saying it would pay dividends in protecting the integrity of football.

Masaseng also said the agreement was the minimum requirement for players contracts and that it advocated for better  playing  conditions as well as players well-being.

 He said it was pleasing that both FUB and BFL were committed towards player  protection and safeguarding in relation to reviewing the suitability of existing regulatory  frameworks. ENDS