The Botswana Football Association (BFA) and Botswana Premier League (BPL) plan to resume play on February 2021 after close to a year’s hiatus caused by the coronavirus pandemic, Botswana Football Association (BFA) President, Maclean Letshwiti announced today.

Both the BFA and BPL are confident about making a return to the turf as they have been building momentum gradually and on a trial basis, using promotional play-offs and national teams as a litmus test.

However, the league’s return will still require final clearance from the Botswana health authorities.
“The corona virus pandemic has truly changed the way we do things. It has forced us to move our football season to become a February/November season, so we have set the wheels in motion to start all the leagues from February next year, for us to be in alignment with the FIFA, CAF and COSAFA calendars,” said Letshwiti.

The BFA President added, “We have so far completed dry runs on how the leagues will resume and operate. Since the outbreak of the corona virus, we’ve also staged promotional play offs and they were all successful, without any teething problems. Quite gratifying is that the games were zonal whilst with the league games are across zones. We intend to start the FA CUP semi finals in January and we will further engage with the health authorities for guidance. I can confidently reveal that all the leagues will be starting sometime around the first or second weeks of February 2021.”

Letshwiti noted that when offices open in January, they will be in constant communication with all the football structures and regions so they can seamlessly return to football, most importantly because their fans have been hungry for some football action.