The beautiful game's sorry site

I travelled to Swaziland before hitting the highway to Botswana on a football fact-finding mission. The Swazis were very forth-coming and helpful and the Ba Tswana a little jittery and suspicious of my intentions. They kept their cards close to their chests as if I was there to steal their jobs.

The levels and standards of the game in each country is very low. The salaries are bad. Training grounds are grassless and very hard. For an idea, even the 3rd tier teams in South Africa and Zimbabwe have better training facilities. The school grounds of Mzansi are light-years ahead. I was really gutted.

In Swaziland, I met a long lost friend I first met a decade ago in Brazil. Boy Mkhonta is now Technical Director there, taking the reins from another Brazilian graduate, Sibandze. The man's passion has grown and he is doing a fantastic job and was extremely helpful.

I could not meet my other Brazilian classmate in Botswana. Ex-Zebras coach, Stanley Tshosane was too busy with personal affairs and all our appointments failed to materialise. He promised to make amends. There were also unsuccessful attempts to meet Rahman Gumbo and Madinda Ndlovu.

It was a privilege to have the time with Barry Daka and share some moments and catch up on our fruitful past together as coaches and administrators of the game. My feeling was that Mr Daka feels he did enough for football and that he was prepared to die on the pitch. The sad part is how the game treated him wherever he went.

Many people have raised concerns about the heroes of the game who made the people, city and country proud and yet they have nothing to show for it. There are many examples of players and coaches who only can show you scares that they received for the joy of their fans and nothing else. Few will have medals to prove their prowess then. Many struggle to have meals on the table for their families.

Could the blame be on the economy or their mismanagement of their own affairs? Is the environment not good enough to have the sportsmen and women live happily ever after? Can't the situation improve and who is responsible for the demise of the former heroes?

Africa allergic to good governance and success

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.

Barry Daka On New Job

Former Notwane, ECCO City Greens and Police XI coach Barry Daka, will coach newly promoted Happy Hearts of Botswana. Barry coached Highlanders FC, Railstars FC, Zimbabwe national senior and junior teams even won the league with ECCO a few seasons back.

BBza was given a mandate to take the ambitious team to greatness. They want his experience in dealing with their youthful team. While professionalism is a big issue in Botswana, coaches often put up with a lot of both headaches and heartaches to implement their philosophies and tactics.

Happy Hearts have already lost a charity Challenge Cup to Gaborone United but the club conceded all their preparations are barely 40% before the start of the league. They signed 2 veterans and young players from Rahman Gumbo's Township Rollers reserves.

A professional of his calibre, Daka will have to compromise his stance and the local culture of doing football as a favour for the coach. Having been in those situations for years now, he must be aware of the situation but will be hoping to give Rahman Gumbo a run for his Pulas.

Rahman Gumbo made a fantastic start for Mochudi Chiefs registering a 4-0 win over Uniao Flamengo Santos and giving a bapstism of fire to new boys Black Peril, 8-1 but lost to Gunners 0-2. Willard Mshinkila Khumalo's Nico were crushed 6-1 by Township Rollers who climbed to the summit of the Botswana MOBILE Premier League over the weekend.

Botswana football in general is on the rise parlty because of the contribution of the Zimbabwean mentors but largely because the Botswana coach is nimplementing the Brazilian mentality of the game. Stanley Tshosane was in a class in which I was top coach in Brazil in 1999 as a fellow student.

Do you think Botswana football is relevant enough for your consumption on this blog?

Barry Daka On New Job

Former Notwane, ECCO City Greens and Police XI coach Barry Daka, will coach newly promoted Happy Hearts of Botswana. Barry coached Highlanders FC, Railstars FC, Zimbabwe national senior and junior teams even won the league with ECCO a few seasons back.

BBza was given a mandate to take the ambitious team to greatness. They want his experience in dealing with their youthful team. While professionalism is a big issue in Botswana, coaches often put up with a lot of both headaches and heartaches to implement their philosophies and tactics.

Happy Hearts have already lost a charity Challenge Cup to Gaborone United but the club conceded all their preparations are barely 40% before the start of the league. They signed 2 veterans and young players from Rahman Gumbo's Township Rollers reserves.

A professional of his calibre, Daka will have to compromise his stance and the local culture of doing football as a favour for the coach. Having been in those situations for years now, he must be aware of the situation but will be hoping to give Rahman Gumbo a run for his Pulas.

Rahman Gumbo made a fantastic start for Mochudi Chiefs registering a 4-0 win over Uniao Flamengo Santos and giving a bapstism of fire to new boys Black Peril, 8-1 but lost to Gunners 0-2. Willard Mshinkila Khumalo's Nico were crushed 6-1 by Township Rollers who climbed to the summit of the Botswana MOBILE Premier League over the weekend.

Botswana football in general is on the rise parlty because of the contribution of the Zimbabwean mentors but largely because the Botswana coach is nimplementing the Brazilian mentality of the game. Stanley Tshosane was in a class in which I was top coach in Brazil in 1999 as a fellow student.

Do you think Botswana football is relevant enough for your consumption on this blog?

Barry Daka On New Job

Former Notwane, ECCO City Greens and Police XI coach Barry Daka, will coach newly promoted Happy Hearts of Botswana. Barry coached Highlanders FC, Railstars FC, Zimbabwe national senior and junior teams even won the league with ECCO a few seasons back.

BBza was given a mandate to take the ambitious team to greatness. They want his experience in dealing with their youthful team. While professionalism is a big issue in Botswana, coaches often put up with a lot of both headaches and heartaches to implement their philosophies and tactics.

Happy Hearts have already lost a charity Challenge Cup to Gaborone United but the club conceded all their preparations are barely 40% before the start of the league. They signed 2 veterans and young players from Rahman Gumbo's Township Rollers reserves.

A professional of his calibre, Daka will have to compromise his stance and the local culture of doing football as a favour for the coach. Having been in those situations for years now, he must be aware of the situation but will be hoping to give Rahman Gumbo a run for his Pulas.

Rahman Gumbo made a fantastic start for Mochudi Chiefs registering a 4-0 win over Uniao Flamengo Santos and giving a bapstism of fire to new boys Black Peril, 8-1 but lost to Gunners 0-2. Willard Mshinkila Khumalo's Nico were crushed 6-1 by Township Rollers who climbed to the summit of the Botswana MOBILE Premier League over the weekend.

Botswana football in general is on the rise parlty because of the contribution of the Zimbabwean mentors but largely because the Botswana coach is nimplementing the Brazilian mentality of the game. Stanley Tshosane was in a class in which I was top coach in Brazil in 1999 as a fellow student.

Do you think Botswana football is relevant enough for your consumption on this blog?

Barry Daka On New Job

Former Notwane, ECCO City Greens and Police XI coach Barry Daka, will coach newly promoted Happy Hearts of Botswana. Barry coached Highlanders FC, Railstars FC, Zimbabwe national senior and junior teams even won the league with ECCO a few seasons back.

BBza was given a mandate to take the ambitious team to greatness. They want his experience in dealing with their youthful team. While professionalism is a big issue in Botswana, coaches often put up with a lot of both headaches and heartaches to implement their philosophies and tactics.

Happy Hearts have already lost a charity Challenge Cup to Gaborone United but the club conceded all their preparations are barely 40% before the start of the league. They signed 2 veterans and young players from Rahman Gumbo's Township Rollers reserves.

A professional of his calibre, Daka will have to compromise his stance and the local culture of doing football as a favour for the coach. Having been in those situations for years now, he must be aware of the situation but will be hoping to give Rahman Gumbo a run for his Pulas.

Rahman Gumbo made a fantastic start for Mochudi Chiefs registering a 4-0 win over Uniao Flamengo Santos and giving a bapstism of fire to new boys Black Peril, 8-1 but lost to Gunners 0-2. Willard Mshinkila Khumalo's Nico were crushed 6-1 by Township Rollers who climbed to the summit of the Botswana MOBILE Premier League over the weekend.

Botswana football in general is on the rise parlty because of the contribution of the Zimbabwean mentors but largely because the Botswana coach is nimplementing the Brazilian mentality of the game. Stanley Tshosane was in a class in which I was top coach in Brazil in 1999 as a fellow student.

Do you think Botswana football is relevant enough for your consumption on this blog?