{"id":78449,"date":"2025-11-18T16:44:54","date_gmt":"2025-11-18T16:44:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/fans-safety-overshadows-blockbuster-clash"},"modified":"2025-11-18T17:11:14","modified_gmt":"2025-11-18T17:11:14","slug":"fans-safety-overshadows-blockbuster-clash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/fans-safety-overshadows-blockbuster-clash","title":{"rendered":"Fans Safety Overshadows Blockbuster Clash"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Botswana. <\/strong><\/span><b>The blockbuster FNB Preniership encounter between Gaborone United and Mochudi Centre Chiefs, which ended in a goalless draw on Friday night has concluded, but the decision to host such a \u2018category A\u2019 clash at Gaborone United Stadium continues to be the talking point among many football fans.<\/b><\/p>\n<p>A match between Botswana Premier League leaders Moyagoleele and perennial crowd-pullers Magosi, is always bound to draw massive spectatorship and demands careful preparation.<\/p>\n<p>Given the Friday night turnout of Chiefs supporters, who reliably flock to support their team, and GU\u2019s impressive 10-game unbeaten run, a large crowd was inevitably expected at the stadium for the fixture. All signs therefore indicated that GU Stadium was not a suitable venue for such an event.<\/p>\n<p>It is worth noting that the Gaborone United Sadium is certified for a capacity of less than 5,000 spectators, with the majority of stands made from construction scaffolding, except for the eastern stand.<\/p>\n<p>With the National Stadium unavailable due to renovations, only Lobatse Sports Complex, Obed Itani Chilume Stadium, or Royal Aria Stadium could accommodate high-profile category A matches like the Chiefs and GU game. Some spectators at the game criticised the host venue during the post-match interview.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was a bad advert for local football, it was just too overcrowded and cramped up, clearly spectator safety was not considered when settling for the venue,\u201d said Mothusi Dikgang.<\/p>\n<p>Dikgang said spectators did not receive full value for their money, as overcrowding resulted in obstructed views. He decried that both the Premier League and the host team failed to prioritise supporters\u2019 safety and should have agreed to move the game to a much larger stadium.<\/p>\n<p>Another attendee, Bernard Seleke, called the situation a ticking time bomb ready to explode.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA lot of spectators had to take drastic measures and put their lives in danger and watch from the roof of the dressing rooms, which was unsafe to do,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Another spectator, Kitso Molefe stated that GU, as host, had the right to use its home ground and to regulate ticket sales in accordance with the stadium\u2019s capacity.<\/p>\n<p>Molefe was of the view that it was not economically viable for GU to incur costs, such as stadium fees, elsewhere while it owns a stadium. Meanwhile, efforts to contact the Premier League were unsuccessful.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Botswana<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Botswana. The blockbuster FNB Preniership encounter between Gaborone United and Mochudi Centre Chiefs, which ended in a goalless draw on Friday night has concluded, but the decision to host such a \u2018category A\u2019 clash at Gaborone United Stadium continues to be the talking point among many football fans. A match between Botswana Premier [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":78448,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,17],"tags":[234],"class_list":["post-78449","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-sport","tag-botswana"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Fans Safety Overshadows Blockbuster Clash - Botswana<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The blockbuster FNB Preniership encounter between Gaborone United and Mochudi Centre Chiefs, which ended in a goalles ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/fans-safety-overshadows-blockbuster-clash\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Fans Safety Overshadows Blockbuster Clash\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The blockbuster FNB Preniership encounter between Gaborone United and Mochudi Centre Chiefs, which ended in a goalles ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/fans-safety-overshadows-blockbuster-clash\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Botswana\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-11-18T16:44:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-11-18T17:11:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/botswana\/sites\/38\/2025\/11\/sm_1763473199.23219.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/fans-safety-overshadows-blockbuster-clash#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/fans-safety-overshadows-blockbuster-clash\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Fans Safety Overshadows Blockbuster Clash\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-11-18T16:44:54+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-11-18T17:11:14+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/fans-safety-overshadows-blockbuster-clash\"},\"wordCount\":399,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/fans-safety-overshadows-blockbuster-clash#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/botswana\/sites\/38\/2025\/11\/sm_1763473199.23219.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Botswana\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"sport\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/fans-safety-overshadows-blockbuster-clash#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/fans-safety-overshadows-blockbuster-clash\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/fans-safety-overshadows-blockbuster-clash\",\"name\":\"Fans Safety Overshadows Blockbuster Clash - 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