The expansion of accommodation facilities at Lekidi Football Centre under the FIFA Goal II project commenced yesterday.

The job has been awarded to TAMLAC, the construction company that worked on FIFA Goal I project of building the Botswana Football Association (BFA) technical centre and administration offices. FIFA has availed $400,000 to co-fund the first project on a 50-50 basis with the Botswana government. In the second project, FIFA will give another $400,000 to construct a double storey hostel of 16 rooms with the government contributing nothing. There will also be a kiosk for selling BFA merchandise.

BFA president, David Fani said that given the first project was completed at the end of 2003, they took long to apply for Goal II funding. "I can assure all that there will be no such delay in applying for Goal III project funding which BFA will be eligible to apply for as soon as the hostel project is complete," he said. The Goal II project should be completed by February 2010.

The Minister of Youth, Sport and Culture, Gladys Kokorwe appealed to the BFA to come up with viable projects to be considered for funding under Goal III. She said that government funding for sport development has increased significantly over the years.

FIFA development officer, Ashford Mamelodi suggested to the BFA to consider spreading the projects across the country. BFA chief executive officer, Tosh Kgotlele said that they have already applied for a plot in Francistown to build a technical centre.