Botswana: BFA, UEFA working on bounce back programme

Ga — Botswana Football Association (BFA) president, Maclean Letshwiti says football is hugely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Speaking during the BFA and Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) virtual press conference on Wednesday, he said the association was happy to be working with UEFA in the bounce back programme.

Letshwiti said the aim of the project was to develop an action plan that would help the association to recover from the impact of the pandemic as well as to prioritise its action going forward.

He said it was paramount that whatever they did, they should ensure the safety and security of Batswana

He said they would work with the Ministry of Youth Empowerment, Sport and Culture Development to ensure guidelines and protocols were followed, including prioritising the safety, health and fitness of players.

Furthermore, he said in the short term they would also focus on health and fitness, adding that whilst they might not be able to return to competitive football quickly, they would engage players, coaches and clubs and ensure that they were working individually to keep fit.

The other area, he said, was communication, which he described as vital in crisis. He added that they had vowed to communicate with their stakeholders regularly to ensure there was one message about BFA's plans for the future.

Letshwiti noted that the BFA had set up a COVID-19 task team that would be made up of representatives from football in the country and would be chaired by Carolin Braun.

"This will be the driving force behind our discussions, directions and recommendation for football recovery in Botswana," he said.

He said they were confident that working together they could recover and bounce back stronger from the COVID-19 pandemic.

UEFA consultant, Stewart Regan said in times like these, there was need for strong leadership, adding that the BFA found it prudent to appoint Braun to drive the changes that would make a difference in Botswana football.

He concurred with Letshwiti that the most important issue was to ensure that all stakeholders' safety was first during the bounce back.

He said some of the areas they looked at during the bounce back plan was how they engaged players and referees and how to kept players healthy and operate in a safe environment.

For her part, UEFA's head of international relations, Eva Pasquier said COVID-19 had changed a lot of things in football, and that many countries were going to find it difficult to return to the pitch. Pasquier said the UEFA assist programme was adopted by the executive committee four years ago to support sister confederations, within and beyond Europe.

She said their objectives were to share experiences, expertise and knowledge in order to help UEFA's five sister confederations and their member associations develop and strengthen football in their respective territories.

She said the programme was also aimed at responding to the needs of national associations and confederations around the world while increasing solidarity and facilitating football development globally.

Pasquier said the four pillars of the UEFA assist programme were to capacitate, develop youth football, infrastructure, and UEFA member association support.

This article originally appeared on Botswana Daily News

Photo: BFA/Facebook