11 May 2023

Botswana is ready to submit a convincing bid book to meet all the CAF requirements in a quest to host the AFCON 2027. 

Botswana has submitted declaration of interest to host alongside Algeria, Egypt and a joint bid from Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania.

The  bid committee chairperson, Ashford Mamelodi said they were confident to put up an impressive bid despite the fact that their contenders’ have superior facilities.

‘We just have to put our best foot forward, and we believe there are certain things that we have and they don’t have, so what we want to do as Botswana is to put a very strong compelling bid,” he said.

Mamelodi said given Botswana’s lead consultant’s experience they were ready for the challenge.

He said the the lead consultants engaged accounting officers in Gaborone on Tuesday to ensure that they were no gaps in requirements set by CAF.

“We are in this to win it, and that’s how the BIDCO team feels, we are in it to win it that is our aim,” he said.

South African based Reuben Reddy Architects (RRA) has been tasked to come up with a compelling bid book and its representative Reuben Reddy said they were working around the clock to meet the submission deadline.

He said this was not their first time to be engaged in coming up with a bid book, given that they had done successful bids in Russia to win rights to host the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia.

“Russia was comparable to Botswana, as they were first time bidders and we had to put the best foot forward and fulfilling CAF requirements,” he said.

Furthermore Reddy assured Batswana that they would meet CAF deadline for member associations to submit their final bid on May 23.

May 23 is also deadline for countries willing to host to submit hosting agreement, host cities and government guarantees. ENDS