The Botswana Volleyball Federation (BVF) has conceded that it is too late to run this year's league. BVF president, Daniel Molaodi explained that protracted negotiations with the potential sponsor, Mascom, forced the delays in the start of the league.

He said the league has been cancelled and talks are already underway with Mascom for the competition to start early next year. Molaodi stated that there are still contractual issues to be ironed out before the sponsorship deal is sealed. He explained that the previous BVF committee negotiated the deal, but there were grey areas in the agreement that needed to be cleared. These include how the sponsor is going to benefit from the partnership and the contribution that clubs are going to make towards the success of the deal. Molaodi said the league cannot start before the sponsorship deal is sealed as Mascom wanted to derive mileage from all the games.

"We are talking about a lot of money here, and we cannot just start the league when some of the issues are still hanging," he stressed. He regretted that the announcement of the sponsorship was made prematurely and this raised expectations. He said when the new officials were voted in this year, they thought the negotiations with the sponsor would not take long. But this was not to be as there was a lot of ground to be covered.

Molaodi remains positive that despite the lengthy negotiations, the issue will be concluded. Although Mascom has committed to sponsoring the league, it has yet to sign a contract with the BVF. Molaodi believes the cancellation of this year's competition will not have a negative effect on volleyball because there has been little action in recent years. He said the federation organised tournaments to keep players active while negotiations with Mascom were going on.