LETLHOGILE MPUANG
Boitekanelo sponsorship elapsed in May
A dark cloud appears to be hovering over the heads of former BTC Premiership champions Mochudi Centre Chiefs just a few weeks before the start of the new league season. Reliable sources have revealed that the club is in financial debt estimated to be around P2.3 million.
Since the departure of former investors in 2016, The Jamali family, the Kgatleng giants have been rocked by serious financial challenges. This contributed to a huge chunk of the first team squad leaving for greener pastures. The inability to recruit big name signings and the chopping and changing of coaches has also seen the club failing to keep up with paying their salaries.
According to the latest developments, the new Chiefs Executive Committee has revealed that the club is in deep financial trouble, and many of those that are owed by the club have brought the matter before Botswana Premier League (BPL).
“We owe people about 2.3 million and these people have court orders (garnish orders) which have been brought before the premier league,” a source told Gazette Sport. The source further divulged that some of Chiefs’ prize money for last season went straight into paying some part of the debt.
“Some part of the prize money was used to pay some of the debts, every amount that we get goes straight to those people we owe. That is why we are failing to pay players, and this will continue for the longest time if we don’t improve our revenue generation avenues,” added the informer.
Reached for comment Chiefs Vice Chairman Clifford Mogomotsi confirmed the P2.3 million debt, but said he could not discuss the matter in the media.
“Yes, it true, but we cannot be talking about debts in the media. We told our members about the debt because we wanted them to appreciate what kind of situation the club is in financially and why we have a problem with paying players,” he told Gazette Sport.
“It would be very wrong to be talking about this issue in the papers, but it is a fact. Even the supporters, we presented them with the financial statements, but we did not give them copies because it is an in-house matter,” continued the Chiefs official.
Asked what the club is doing to address the situation, he said that they were currently engaging with everyone that was owed by the club, but no strategies or time frames have been set to clear the debt.
He also confirmed that a large part of the P170 000 that the club got from the BPL as prize money went straight to the creditors, and they are in talks with a few potential sponsors to replace Boitekanelo College, who their contract elapsed in May.
“We only received a small portion of that, the rest went all out to the creditors,” confirmed Mogomotsi.
“We are currently engaging a few people out there to come in and sponsor the club, but it is not an easy process. The proposals are out there, the market for sponsors in Botswana is very limited and it is not like in the South African league where sponsors are fighting to sponsor clubs. The members have spoken that we find an investor and hand over the team, but we need to get our house in order, we still have a case in court and until it is done we cannot proceed to find an investor. We have a few people out there who have shown interest already,” he concluded.