• Sponsor wary of the CAS pending case
• This matter is far from over – Chiefs
BONGANI MALUNGA
BTCL, the Botswana Premier League (BPL) sponsors, will only release the 2015/2016 beMOBILE Premier League prize money upon knowing the final resolution by the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) as well as receiving an official report from the Premier League office.
An official correspondence from the BPL and the Botswana Football Association (BFA) has recognized Township Rollers as the 2015/2016 after they beat Mochudi Centre Chiefs 5-1 in a rearranged championship playoff at the Molepolole Sports Complex.
The long wait for the disbursement of prize money to all 16 league clubs was expected to end last week but it looks set to continue as the league sponsors are seeking a report from the Premier League to ensure that the league has indeed elapsed.
In addition to the BPL report, the league sponsors are aware that the CAS final judgement will be the true determining factor of the destination of the league trophy.
Gazette Sport has established that the sponsors do not want to dish out the prize money with the possibility of CAS overruling the BPL and BFA’s current consensus that Rollers are the champions.
There has been a general fear within the football fraternity that BTCL would soon divorce their union with the BPL due to the controversy that has been dragging on for a while, observers had claimed that the sponsor was uncomfortable with the bad publicity the game has been getting.
Former BFA president Tebogo Sebego, at this past weekend’s BFA Annual General Assembly, confirmed that BTCL is still committed to local football despite rumours of unrest between the BPL and their sponsor.
Chiefs’ Clifford Mogomotsi told this publication that they will not contest the current declaration of Rollers as champions but warned that the issue is far from resolved despite the playoff result.
“This matter is still being handled by CAS. Their judgement will finally bring the matter to bed. Before that, no conclusions should be drawn, there might be a third different trophy coronation which would be a premature act because the judgement could go either way. That is why we were reluctant to participate in the playoff because it might end up being a pointless exercise, for now we should all wait for CAS,” Mogomotsi stated.