07 Jun 2023

The name Matebele FC is one of the few unknown ones in football circles.

Despite its rise to the premier league, the team is only two years old, making its rise to the top a meteoric one. 

Formed from the ruins of Master Blackpool in the 2020/21 football season, the club has known nothing, but a rise with each year.

The Nest, the place where the team is based, is not a fancy clubhouse. Only of significance is the natural turf sprawled on the pitch, but still, it is not the most kempt compared to other stadia.

The dressing rooms are still under construction and the ground has no stands or lighting, the fence separating the pitch from the supporters is dilapidated.

“You better shoot pictures of this area now, then come back later around September to make a comparison,” smiles Lame Makache, the dreadlocked managing director of Matebele C. Having financially shouldered the newly promoted team, he sure looked to mean what he said.

The youthful club chairperson, Moreetsi Kediseng, is one of those that relish the rise.

“The journey started a few years back when I went for further studies at Nottingham University in Malaysia. That is where I met our current managing director, Makache, technical director, Arnold Mokane and our financial director, Kagiso Tumelo. We became friends but we had no idea that one day we will come together to form a football team,” he said.

He said in 2011 on return from abroad, he recruited Mokane and Makache to play for Blackpool, while Tumelo was recruited into management.

“By then I was the chairman of Blackpool, We remained close friends even after their playing days and when an opportunity to invest in football arose in 2017/18 season I approached Makache to buy the then struggling Blackpool,” he said.

He said the team was by then plying its trade in division two and they managed to help it gain promotion to division one the following year, where they got position two.

He said the period also gave them a chance to introspect and put their house in order and make proper planning.

It was during that period that Makache, through his IT company, IPSPACE sponsored them to the tune of P500 000 a season for three seasons, then the highest sponsorship in their division.

The deal he said, helped Blackpool buy some good players and made them a competitive entity.

“Through such financial assistance, we managed to win our division in the 2019/2020, although the league was interrupted by COVID 19 with six games to go, but because we were by the leading the log standings we were declared champions proceeded to win the promotional play-offs to the first division south, remember that we were still trading by the name Blackpool,” he said.

Makache said promotion to the first division came with its own challenges as they were now required to fulfill club licensing requirements, most of which they could not manage owing to meagre resources. Such included a playing ground complete with dressing rooms.

He said the phase forced them to call an annual general meeting of the club’s membership, where it was agreed that since Blackpool was not in good standing with the registrar of societies, it should then migrate to a company so as to start afresh.

It was after the resolution that Makache took 100 per cent ownership of the club. He convinced the membership because he had a 4.5 hacter farm in the village that he promised to turn into the home of the team.

The move also meant that Blackpool was now a business entity and that the players would now be fully professional with monthly salaries.

“After the consensus we made submissions to the Registrar of Societies to dissolve Masters Blackpool and from its ruins arose Matebele FC. That was as recent as the 2021/2022 season and the rest is now history,” he said with a content smile.

He said that was the period that the now Matebele showed potential for growth.

“In the 2021/22 season in the first division south, our first season as Matebele FC, we got position four and were knocked out 2-1 at the semi-finals of the Orange FA Cup by Gaborone United in extra-time, an achievement that bolstered our morale and instilled in us that we could go far. It instilled in us a self-belief that we believed carried us to where we are today.

He said after that feat, they took the team on a five-day holiday to Kasane to appreciate their efforts.

It was this season that Matebele stamped its authority in the first division league, emerging champions in the very last game after edging former premier league aristocrats and fellow Kgatleng outfit, Mochudi Centre Chiefs by a solitary goal.

The division had gone to the wire as by the last game, four teams were in contention for the championship.

Kediseng said their achievement as a team came so sudden looking at the fact that they were just two seasons old.

Now it is time for the club to look at the future, and Kediseng sent warning bells to other teams that Matebele were coming to compete.

“We are very much ready for the premier league. It is a challenge of course, but we are committed to succeed there. Our dream is to play our games here at The Nest and we will go around to benchmark on other teams on how to go about it,” he boldly assured.

Having been quiet for the better part of the interview, Makache on whom the finances of the team and all other resources are shouldered, chipped in.

“We do not want to be a ping pong between the first division and the premier league. We will also ensure that by this September all the required upgrades would be done. Developing the ground will be expensive, but it will be less costly than travelling away and so far we have the option of either upgrading our current playing ground or developing from scratch the adjacent training ground,” he said.

He said the plan was to build a ground with the stands so close to the pitch so that supporters could be more intimate with players.

Kediseng also indicated that their fan base was increasing drastically ever since their promotion, such that even some people who felt sored during the dissolution of Blackpool were now back and soothed.

He said they were also happy that even residents of neighboring villages were now identifying with them as it was the only one in Kgatleng that played at the highest level.

A former Centre Chiefs diehard fan, Kediseng called on more Bakgatla to support them during their journey in the elite league.

He said that they would go into the premiership with no pressure as they had seasoned players in the likes of Obonye Moswate, Monaheng Thaele, Osego “Shoes” Gaotewe and Kemmy Pilato.

“All these players played at the highest level, and we have other who represented the country at junior teams, such as Neo Kenalemang and Kgosietsile Ernest. We would however, have to beef up the squad a bit,” he said.

Kediseng said that apart from Makache, the club currently ran a bar and a factory shop to sustain itself.

As the duo rose from their seats, one cannot help but admire their youthful confidence as they indicated that the oldest among the executive committee was as young as 34 years, making Matebele FC young in both management and in existence. ENDS