04 Apr 2023

The Butsa Easter Derby will close with a five-team football tournament scheduled Mabutsane April 7-10.

The tournament will also see two women football teams curtain-raising for the closing ceremony on the last day of the derby.

In an interview, chairperson of the organising committee, Vincent Ramooki, said though they initially started with eight teams from Mabutsane and Kanaku, the number had since reduced due to COVID-19 effects and rural-urban migration, among other factors.

“The tournament was showing growth for the first few years but when COVID-19 hit, some teams could not stick together hence we are now having only five teams this year.

Again, our teams are made up of young people who are based in other areas,” he explained.

However, he noted that since inception, the initiative had impacted positively on both individual players and teams, as their vision was to unearth talent and possibly export it to higher leagues.

He said save for the COVID-19 break, the tournament had managed to keep young people busy during Easter holidays, away from alcohol and drug abuse as well as other social ills.

He said to mark the end of the season, they would engage a fourth official from the Gaborone division, in addition to their three referees.  He was optimistic that the next season would be bigger and better, in terms of sponsorship and number of teams involved.

“We believe the tournament would grow, both by the number of teams and the sponsorship because Mabutsane was recently upgraded to a full district,” he said.

He commended the main sponsor, One Another Charitable Society (OACS) for the contribution towards sport development in their area.

He said the organisation had been the sole sponsor of the tournament since inception until Saverite Mabutsane joined this year.  ENDS