29 Dec 2022

The champion for the Thamaga annual football tournament will be crowned on Saturday following a week of mouth-watering encounters featuring teams within and outside the village.

Despite being disrupted by the COVID-19, resulting in no sponsors, the organisers for the 15-year-old tourney have pegged the prize money at P15 000, P11 000 and P8 000 for first, second and third place.

Further, teams that got knocked out in the first stage received P4 000 each, P6 000 for quarterfinalists and P7 000 for semi-finalists.

Speaking in an interview, the chairperson of the organising committee, Morgan Phokontsi said they therefore relied on gate-takings although the numbers have been dwindling. He, however, remained hopeful that people would continue attending the games in large numbers.

The tournament featured 12 teams among them Thamaga FC, Thamaga Shooting Stars, Taung Young Strikers from Gaborone and Debswana First Division South outfit, Black Forest from Mmankgodi.

Phokontsi said other teams came from Kumakwane and Moshupa, and the idea was to offer people entertainment in one place to discourage them from moving from one place to the other, rendering themselves susceptible to accidents and other misfortunes.

Another reason for the tournament is to unearth hidden talents as ‘some players could end up being recruited by premier league and first division teams’.

The chairperson further said they were also developing referees, adding they had one promising female referee.

The tournament also offered opportunities for the small and micro business owners who sold their stock at the games, which were held at the VDC grounds.  ENDS