Gaborone — Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Youth, Gender, Sport and Culture, Kitso Kemoeng has said Botswana Football Association (BFA) did not submit a compelling case for the government to pay the salary of the newly-appointed Zebras head coach, Didier Gomes Da Rosa.
In an interview with BOPA, Kemoeng confirmed that BFA had made a request through Botswana National Sports Commission (BNSC).
"We stated our case to BNSC that we do not have money," Kemoeng said. "If the BFA thinks they have a compelling case, we believe they will continue to present it."
Kemoeng said where there are compelling circumstances, the ministry considers the factors presented, and make a recommendation to Cabinet. He disclosed that in the present matter, no such recommendation had been made.
This comes after BFA president, MacLean Letshwiti told journalists in a recent press conference that the association had not been successful in its request that government pays the national team coach.
He said he was not in football to fail, and therefore BFA would find ways to foot the coach's salary as this was a national project.
Letshwiti said the association's glory rested on the success of the national team, and if the team does not succeed, then one would not have not completed their task.
"BFA will have to scrape around to find the money, and ultimately make the nation happy. So I need all the support to assist me to raise the money," he said.
He stated that the most successful football countries in Africa were from the North, such as Morocco, Algeria, and Egypt because their governments provide the necessary infrastructure and funding for the national teams.
"It doesn't take a rocket scientist to notice that, so you people should stop saying BFA is failing. The BFA is not failing, but it doesn't have the capacity and no football federation in the world has the capacity to fund the national team," he said.
He stated that the Zebras were the Botswana national team, and not BFA national team, and as such, when it is playing, it is actually the nation that plays.
"The team belongs to the president of the country," Letshwiti said.
BOPA
