03 Mar 2024

Botswana Football Association president, Maclean Letshwiti, has applauded the Construction Industry Trust Fund (CITF) for partnering with Footballers Union of Botswana (FUB) to empower players.

Speaking during FUB and CITF MoU signing ceremony on Friday, Letshwiti said it was important to provide guidance, advice and assistance for players to gain educational qualifications, inform them about possibilities and flexible arrangements with regard to education, training and skills acquisition.

Letshwiti said player development initiatives were meant to see more players building second careers after football.

CITF executive director, Sabryn Tsie said the institution was accredited, belonged to government and every Motswana.

He said they had more than 30 different programmes, which were skills based. Tsie said FUB should rest assured that they were partnering with a credible institution, adding that they were aware of the fact that football career was short therefore, athletes needed something to fall back on hence it was important for them to acquire some skill from CITF.

“Their career can be cut short by injuries, or retirement age, and that is where we come in to offer them training,” he added.

FUB president, Onalethata Tshekiso said the organisation believed that empowering players, past and present through education was important.

“That’s why we have in the past, fostered partnerships with other institutions of higher learning. We are here again today to sign another MoU with CITF,” he said.

Tshekiso said educational support encompassed education in a broad sense and was not limited to providing formal academic opportunities but also non-formal educational options, vocational education, or coaching qualifications. The development part, he said encompassed supporting players in developing personal competencies in life domains different from football.

Furthermore, he said as they embarked on player development journey, they would continue to look for other relevant and pertinent partnerships that could further enhance the future of football players.“We all know that players do not only face challenging situations in their sport, they can also face challenges off the field of play like relationships, mental health issues, finances. These challenges can occur at entry to during and after their professional football career,” said Tshekiso. Ends