Francistown — When a football team gets relegated twice in less than two decades, the chances that it will ever make it to the league become slim if the key causes were mismanagement, bankruptcy and player dissatisfaction.

However, such a sequel of events may not always seal the fate of a football team, when new and visionary leadership have laid out strategies to raise the fallen team like a phoenix from the ashes of relegation. This, according to Happy Hearts Football Club co-director, Phazha Butale, is the dream that team management has in store for the Club with its humble beginnings dating back to 1962 in the historic town of Mafikeng, North West Province, South Africa, in its days as administrative capital of the then Bechuanaland Protectorate.

Happy Hearts was formed from the breakup of the Imperial Red Legs, which was the team of the employees of the then administration of the Bechuanaland Protectorate. According to Butale - himself a talented Notwane and former Zebras player - when the forerunner (Imperial Red Legs) split, the majority of the players, drawn from unskilled professions like labourers, drivers and other lowly paid people went on to form Happy Hearts and the more affluent and educated workforce went to Notwane.

Happy Hearts' co-director Butale says that the new team has been re-organized to resemble a business concern aimed at making a profit and creating employment for talented Batswana.

"I am indebted to and have a passion for the team because my father, Dick Butale, was one of the founding members of the team in its formative years. After its relocation to Gaborone, the team was relegated to the league's second division. There was a two-tier system for the few registered teams where under-performance was the determining factor for relegation. A postmortem of the relegation revealed that the club was on the brink of bankruptcy and was run by leadership deficient in basic management skills. Happy Hearts missed out on promotion to the then 1st Division in 1990 when it was at its peak both from a management and playing staff perspective."

He said that as a result of the failure to gain promotion to the elite league, Happy Hearts lost the bulk of its most talented players to poachers who included the legendary Patrick Zibochwa and kingpin Chandi Moruti to Gunners United, and the late Stephen Monageng to BDF XI. After this episode, new management took over. Like its predecessor, the new team experienced a steady decline until 2004 when it failed to pay subscription to the Botswana Football Association and was consequently expelled from the league. "Because of the unbreakable family ties and my determination to see the club become a permanent feature on league structures, I partnered with former UB Hawks player and businessman, Rabi Tshosa to bring the team back to life. Fortunately, in our endeavour we convinced John Matsheng, head of the second division team Kims Fighters, who expressed keenness to form a merger (with him) as co-director."

Butale added that the ideal football club that the interim leadership has on the drawing boards is to bring sound management to the fore, which will be able to market it to the corporate world, create brand awareness and attract focused clientele, all in all to build a professional entity. From the outset, there is need to find an unwavering sponsor who will provide a sound financial base. "As a sound business strategy, we are doing away with management amateurism that would otherwise run the club as a society running it from the boot of a car. We will incorporate Happy Hearts as a company registered with The Registrar of Companies, institute good corporate governance and accountability with continuity in management in the short, medium and longer terms to replace the tedious election of an executive, with a limited term of office. The project has had a smooth take off and we are re-building the team first in the field of play then we can move to the backroom staff and support structures."

The management is in the process of re-awakening and extending the Happy Hearts fan-base beyond the traditional stronghold of White City to include Bontleng, Phase II, New Stands, Maru-a-Pula and other communities with similar social backgrounds to instill a sense of ownership among supporters. At the moment, the team has managed to secure the sponsorship of a security company, that has pledged P50000, which is very crucial at the moment for the team to take its first steps towards growing into the most professionally run football team in the country.