Tonota FC will make another statement about the scale of their ambition tonight when they launch Tonota FC TV, becoming one of the few, if not the only, Botswana clubs to take their own story directly into the television space.
The programme premieres today (25 September 2026) at 20:00 on SuperSport Channel 208, giving the Premier League newcomers a platform to showcase their players, supporters, activities and the broader project taking shape around the club.
For chairman Tumelo Toteng, the ambition has never been simply to survive among Botswana’s elite.
“We are building a monster of a team,” he said in an interview. “And we understand that for that to happen we must be well oiled in different departments hence this show. Like I have always promised, we are here to compete, not only on the field but across board.”
That competitiveness is now being matched by an attempt to build the structures of a serious football institution.
Tonota arrived in the Premier League after an unbeaten First Division North campaign and have entered the top flight with an openly stated desire to challenge for honours. Their chairman has previously spoken of a longer-term ambition to make the club a dominant force and eventually compete in CAF competitions.
“Our vision is to be dominant in the future,” Toteng said, pointing to established domestic clubs as examples from which Tonota can learn.
The television programme fits into that broader philosophy.
Tonota want the club to remain visible beyond match days, while giving supporters a closer look at the people and structures behind the team. In an increasingly commercial football environment, television exposure can also help the club strengthen its relationship with sponsors and build a recognisable identity.
But the club’s ambitions extend beyond media and results.
Player welfare is central to the model Tonota are trying to establish. Toteng said the club wants its footballers to operate in an environment where their wellbeing is taken seriously, while also encouraging some players to continue their education.
That reflects a wider understanding within the club that developing footballers is not only about improving what happens on the pitch. Players also need preparation for life beyond their playing careers.
He also noted that Tonota are seeking to build an organisation in which football operations, administration, player development, commercial partnerships, media and community work function together rather than as separate projects.
Their recruitment has reflected the same ambition. The club has brought in players with top-flight and international experience while retaining members of the squad that secured promotion.
With that, Toteng said the objective was not simply to assemble a squad capable of avoiding relegation, but to create competition within the squad and establish the standards expected of a club with ambitions of challenging for the title.
The club’s thinking also stretches into infrastructure.
Toteng told this publication that they are constructing their own stadium, a project that could eventually give the club a permanent home and provide a physical base for its ambitions. For a young Premier League club, owning and developing infrastructure represents a significant step towards reducing dependence on facilities outside its control.
There is also a strong community element to the project.
Tonota FC want their growth to benefit the community from which the club takes its name, particularly by creating opportunities for young people and strengthening local engagement with football.
That philosophy has already been evident in the club’s efforts to develop football properties beyond its own league campaign. Tonota organised the inaugural Tati River Cup, which brought together Botswana clubs and Zambian giants Nkana FC. Toteng described the tournament as something intended to become bigger than the club itself.
“This is bigger than Tonota FC. It is about creating something that benefits northern football, our sponsors, our supporters and Botswana football as a whole,” he said.
That same thinking now carries into Tonota FC TV.
The show gives the club an opportunity to tell its story on its own terms, while putting its players and wider football project in front of a much larger audience.
On the field, the newcomers have made an encouraging start. After three league matches they sit fifth with five points, having recently drawn 1-1 away to Mochudi Centre Chiefs.
The results, however, are only the beginning of what Tonota are attempting to build.
For a club that has only just entered the Premier League, the ambition is unusually broad: compete for the league, develop players, support their education and welfare, strengthen the Tonota community, develop infrastructure and eventually test themselves against clubs beyond Botswana.
Toteng’s message is that the club intends to think beyond the immediate season.
“We are building a football property that we want supporters, sponsors and clubs to look forward to every year,” he said of the Tati River Cup.
Tonight, Tonota FC will extend that philosophy to television.
At 20:00 on SuperSport Channel 208, the newcomers will not merely be showing a football team. They will be putting a developing football institution on display.
