Notwane Football Club say they will wait on the Botswana Football Association (BFA)’s National Executive Committee (NEC) to respond to their plea launched against Sankoyo Bush Bucks in the just-ended bemobile Premier league campaign, as they look to battle the fate of dropping to the first division next season.
Notwane registered a complaint against the Premier League rookies on the 17th of April 2015, for fielding Zimbabwean forward Morris Ruzivo. A player they considered ineligible to play, as a result of him not being probably registered with the Premier League, following a fixture played at the Maun Sports Complex on March 21st.
The local governing body of football, BFA, last week reached a conclusion, in which the Premier League Board’s decision of docking 29 points from the Maun based side was deserted. The ruling spelled a play off tie between Notwane and FC Satmos, tomorrow (Wednesday) at the Serowe Sports Complex.
In spite of the NEC handling the matter, Notwane chairman Arnold Somolekae has vowed to leave no stones unturned, as they look to pursue what they deem as “justice”, albeit their decision to fulfill to the orders of the NEC.
“We have heard the judgment, it is up to us to apply our minds with the decision the NEC has made. Notwane is a team in the Premier League and we will comply with the ruling that has been taken,” said Somolekae
“However, we still have a matter which is before the NEC, it is not a protest but a complaint we made against Sankoyo, we will wait for BFA to listen to our complaint,” he carried. Somolekae states that, his club delivered the complaint within the 30 day period to the Premier League, as per the FIFA play rules and regulations.
“We played the fixture on the 21st of March in Maun and on the 17 of April 2015, we then filed the complaint to the Premier League. According to the FIFA regulations, one only has a case if the matter is reported within a 30 day period, we duly obliged as we did it within that period,” stated the chairman of the club.
The head of the Premier League Board made it clear that his side will wait on the NEC to take time listen to the matter at hand before rushing to any conclusions.
“We as Notwane hope that NEC will take time and to listen to our plea before they can conclude anything. For now I am not going to comment much on it but we will wait on them to respond to this issue. People should not make a mistake of thinking that I am commenting on this issue as the chairman of the League but instead as the chairman of Notwane,” he continued.
Somolekae ended by pointing that, despite his side craving for a few more points, which would tip them above FC Satmos on the log standing, they are doing this for the purpose of justice taking its good course.
“It is not like we are not saying Notwane should be given points like other clubs, we want all teams to be treated equally. Justice should be what reaches us all,” ended Somolekae.
Meanwhile, Notwane and FC Satmos have confirmed that they will both be traveling to Serowe to play in Wednesday’s play off fixture. Players of both sets are said to have not yet been released for the off season but have been fully in training since the end of the league.