27 Oct 2022

All the 16 Botswana Premier League teams have been notified that there will be no grants or prize money for the 2022/23 season.

Speaking at a press conference in Gaborone yesterday, Botswana Football League (BFL) board member, responsible for finance, Jagdish Shah, said they had also communicated to clubs that the board was making efforts to find sponsors.

Shah said despite experiencing a sponsorship drought, the league had more than P6 million in their coffers to sustain the league for the whole year.

He said out of the amount, P2 million was a carried forward balance from FIFA, P1 million carried forward from ABSA, while P3 million would be from the Botswana Television (Btv).

“In that regard, we are confident that in terms of running the league for the whole year, there will be no hindrances, nor complaints from any of the suppliers in terms of payment made,” he said. Shah said they had finalised a three-year contract with Btv, adding both parties had agreed that in the first year, they would get P7 million, while in the second year they will get P8 million and another P8 million in the third year.

“However, we are yet to sign the contract with Btv because the authorising signatory is outside the country and he is returning on Monday, so maybe we will be signing on Tuesday,” he said.

Furthermore, Shah said the advantage of the deal between the BFL and Btv was that there were lots of commercial aspects in the agreement.

He said if the commercial aspects were taken care of by the clubs there would be a lot of money coming in to the league.

“And all the extra money that are coming will be shared by BFL and Btv in the ratio of 60:40 depending on who brought something on the table,” he said.

On other issues, Shah said Botswana National Sport Commission (BNSC) had approved the sale of alcohol at the stadiums.

BFL chairperson, Nicholas Zakhem said they were ready to kick-start the league on Saturday, adding they could not start the league as envisaged last week due to some logistics.

He said all the departments and stakeholders had done their assignments and they were looking forward to the start of the league. Ends