17 Jan 2023

Three stadia have been certified to host category one and two Confederation of African Football (CAF) matches.

The three are National Stadium in Gaborone, Obed Itani in Francistown and Lobatse Sport Complex.

Botswana National Sport Commission (BNSC) chief executive officer, Tuelo Serufho, said the certification followed a CAF inspection in November 2022.

Category one and two events include the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (WAFCON) qualifiers, men’s Under 17, Under 20 and Under 23 qualifiers.

They can also host men’s U-17, U-20 and U-23 Africa Cup of Nations final tournaments, men’s Champions League preliminary rounds as well as men’s Confederation Cup preliminary rounds.

Serufho said previously, both the National Stadium and Lobatse Sport Complex could not host WAFCON qualifiers, while Lobatse could not host men’s Champions League and Confederation Cup preliminary rounds.

“We are happy about this development as it now presents our teams with choices regarding venues for their competitions. In addition, in the event we want to host CAF finals for competitions up to the level of Under 23 to test ourselves ahead of the 2027 AFCON, we have at least three venues in Botswana that could host such,” he said.

Meanwhile, a report from CAF indicates that there is additional work to be done to the three stadia before they could be certified for category three and four competitions.

Of the three, Obed Itani requires the least amount of work. It requires installation and provision of furniture such as television sets, fridges and chairs in match official offices and conference rooms as well as installation of bulbs, amongst other things.

The CAF report says the National Stadium requires more work, including but not limited to, replacing the current spectator gates with turnstiles, installing an electronic ticketing system, setting up a new venue operation centre, setting up a dedicated VIP lounge and improving on signage.

As such, the work at the National Stadium will likely go beyond March, hence the need to prioritise Obed Itani.

The BNSC has up to mid-March to have attended to the issues ahead of the next Zebras AFCON assignment.

“While there are things that we find reasonable and others that we believe may be a little over the top from within the CAF list, we understand that to host their competitions, we have to comply to their standards, and as such, we are attending to the issues at Obed Itani so that it may be accredited for categories three and four within the next few weeks and certainly ahead of the AFCON qualifiers, as we cannot afford having the Zebras play their home matches in a foreign country,” Serufho said.

CAF is expected back in Botswana at the end of February or beginning of March to inspect Obed Itani and National Stadium, for purposes of accreditation to host categories three and four CAF competitions.  ENDS