As soon as it’s African and it sounds like a fairy tale, there is a witch ready to throw a spanner into the works. That Zebras fairy tale runs of wins over Tunisia, Malawi and Togo is catching up with Botswana. Players are complaining of not being paid well or on time. There is a raw.
Players were vowing not to fulfil Wednesday's friendly encounter against Sweden in Cape Town. The meeting with the Botswana Football Association (BFA) chief executive officer, Judge Mookodi, is reportedly having been advance payment of their appearance fees.
It sounds there was not friendliness and it was quite a lengthy meeting that did not yield much. The politics of football are all over, but exactly when things start going well, there is someone wanting to take the glory or hijack the success of a colleague.
Will such ever leave the continent? Not in our life-time. There would rather be no success of the whole initiative than for individuals to fail. These things are prevalent in Southern African countries; hence not so many teams and clubs have conquered Africa from this part of the Dark Continent. It is a shame.
Stanley Tshosane had done a remarkable job, and making Botswana the team of the year. Their progress and exploits surpass the winning of the FIFA 2010 World Cup by Spain. Well, surely, if a team has Ike Cassillas, Carles Puyol, Gerard Pique, Iniesta, Xavi, Fernando Torres and David Villa, they can win anything anytime. But with all due respect, the Zebras are nobodies.
I guess there were intimidation threats by the leadership to expel those in the forefront. This is usual and unnecessary. If the underpaid players complain, the employers tend to twist that to indiscipline and it rarely works. The Zebras, on their part, went on to lose 1-2 to Sweden, not a bad result by any account. The outcome proved their position as the 12th best in Africa is no fluke.
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