- Their lack of the CAF A licence is the matter
GAZETTE REPORTER
All but one local coaches currently leading premier league clubs are not qualified to be in charge at that level because they do not have CAF A licences, Botswana Football Association (BFA) has said.
Even though head coaches of premier league clubs are expected to have minimum of the Confederation of African Football B Licence – called CAF B licence, for short – the BFA insists that all coaches ought to have the CAF A licence.
Only three
BFA Technical Director Tshepo Mphukuthi told Gazette Sports in an interview this week that they are working hard to ensure that local coaches are qualified at the right level to take charge of premier league teams with a CAF A licence.
“We have only three CAF A licence holders in Botswana,” he said. “These are Benny Kgomela, Philemon Makgwengwe and Losika Keatlholetswe.
“The challenge that we have had in the past is that in 2014, CAF took a decision to review its licence scheme and in the process stopped running CAF licence courses until 2018.”
Compliance
As a result, Mphukuthi said, there is a need to ensure compliance because it is possible for all our premier league coaches to have CAF A licences.
“Premier league coaches should have a CAF A licence and not a CAF B licence under the current situation,” he pointed out. “This is because our coaching compliance manual says to coach at premier league level, you should have an A licence as a local but we had to waive that.”
Since 2020
The BFA instructor noted that strictly demanding the CAF A licence from all local coaches at the beginning of the current premier league season would have left many clubs without coaches.
“You will remember that after the convention, CAF decided that every member association should do its sown manuals and submit it to CAF for approval for courses to be run locally Botswana,” Mphukuthi explained. “We have been working on that since 2020.”