01 Feb 2023

Failure to meet the Confederation of African Football (CAF) requirements for hosting category three and four matches, will not have a negative bearing in Botswana’s quest to bid for AFCON 2027.

The Botswana-Namibia 2027 (BONA 2027) head of secretariat, Geoffrey Gare, said this in an interview after experts from Rueben Reddy Architects (RRA) toured Botswana facilities this week.

He said Batswana should not be worried that the country was not in a position to host some high category games.

CAF category one and two events include the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (WAFCON) qualifiers, men’s Under 17, Under 20 and Under 23 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) qualifiers, men’s U-17, U-20 and U-23 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) final tournaments, men’s Champions League preliminary rounds and men’s Confederation Cup preliminary rounds.

Gare said the facilities audit would show gaps, which government was determined to deal with.

“As the stadia are, they can be able to host certain level of games, amongst them junior teams and women’s football assignments,” he added.

The RRA team, he said, started at the Sir Seretse Khama International Airport and National Stadium, adding the experts were going to do a field work in all the places that had been proposed to host AFCON final, should Botswana and Namibia win the bid.

Gare said the experts would also audit facilities in Gaborone, Lobatse, Francistown, Maun and Kasane.

Furthermore, Gare said the facilities might be ready to host now, but the auditors’ duty was to determine the existing gaps and what was required for Botswana to co-host the Africa Cup of Nations in 2027.

He said the experts’ report would highlight what should be done for the country to host AFCON finals.

“The experts met with Civil Aviation of Botswana and some stakeholders like Botswana Tourism Organisation (BTO), to make sure that the hotel facilities that we have are adequate to accommodate and host teams, supporters and officials,” he said.

Meanwhile, the audit is expected to validate a recent Confederation of African Football (CAF) report that there is an additional work that needs to be done at the National Stadium before its certification can be upgraded from hosting category two to categories three and four events.

Should Botswana and Namibia win the rights to host the AFCON in 2027, they will become the first joint host from Southern Africa and the smallest hosts in the region, even with their population combined. ENDS