The Sunday News
Ngqwele Dube, Sports Correspondent
THE Bulawayo Amateur Football Association (Bafa) capped off its 2017 season with the crowning of the Edgars Bafa League champions, Safeguard FC at a ceremony held at the security company’s premises on Tuesday.
The ceremony saw the presentation of the Edgars Bafa League floating shield to the champions who completed the season with 61 points and capped the win with a two-all draw against second placed United FC who finished on 57 points.
Bafa chairman, Chris Mtungwazi said they had an exciting season whose highlight was the milestone of the 60th anniversary of the Townshend and Butcher Bafa Cup.
“We had a good season by any standard as we managed to complete the season in time and we had little hiccups in organisational terms with all fixtures being fulfilled as scheduled.
“There were only minor disciplinary issues as teams heeded our calls to ensure they stick to the rules,” he said.
Mtungwazi heaped praise on the teams saying despite the difficult financial situation facing the country they remained committed to the league with no team withdrawing during the season.
He said they also secured a new sponsor, Autoquip who funded this year’s Top 8 season-opening tournament that was won again by Safeguard.
Mtungwazi said they hope to maintain the relationship with Autoquip and ensure the tourney becomes an annual event.
Golden Hotspurs won the Townsend and Butcher Trophy during the special 60th anniversary commemorations, which however, did go huge as anticipated at the beginning of the year.
“We had anticipated to hold a dinner in honour of the milestone as it is one of the longest running sponsorships in football and perhaps in any sporting code, however, funding was a challenge but we are grateful to Townsend and Butcher proprietors, both present and previous, for their commitment to football,” he said.
Safeguard chairman, Bigboy Sibanda said they were delighted with walking away with a double this season and would work hard to make a clean sweep next year and take all the three trophies on offer at Bafa.
