BONGANI MALUNGA
Football clubs around the country will continue to wait to be officially instructed to resume training, Gazette Sport established this latest development which now overrules the initial July date which had been speculated to be set for teams to restart training.
Teams have been inactive since March following the COVID-19 situation which resulted in a lock down, after the lock down the government eased restrictions and eventually lifted the lock down with clubs expecting to return to action behind closed doors.
However, a BFA medical report revealed loopholes that will continue to haunt clubs in their efforts to maintain health protocol, the report also detained the heavy financial burden that would be placed on clubs as serial testing would be required before the clubs are given a green light.
. The Botswana Football Association has, through their Secretary General Mfolo Mfolo, stated that clubs are still not allowed to return to training at the moment.
“A decision will be made by the National Executive Committee but for now it is still not safe for football to return. We have to consider health protocols which require disinfection and serial testing before contact sport can resume, we are not yet ready to make that decision, the risk is till high. The winter season plus the ever worrying presence of the Coronavirus requires us to tread carefully, that is what we are doing at the moment,” Mfolo told this publication.
Disinfection and testing costs would cost north of P2 million before staging matches according to the report and that has proved to be a stumbling block. In South Africa clubs are expected to foot the COVID-19 testing bill on their own, the same would be expected in Botswana but the local clubs are currently operating on heavy deficits having struggled to generate enough revenue during this trying period.