17 Sep 2024

The Botswana National Sports Commission (BNSC) has apologised to the nation and the Zebras about the late arrival of the senior national team from Mauritania.

The Zebras arrived on the day of their AFCON fixture against Egypt due to chartered flight “mix up”.  Addressing a press conference on Thursday, the BNSC board chairperson, Marumo Morule, said the expectation was that the team was going to travel with a chartered aircraft, which was scheduled to arrive the following day after the Mauritania game on September 08.

He said that would have allowed the team to rest and prepare fully for their game against Egypt on September 10. Furthermore, he said the initial charter company they had entered to a contract with, unexpectedly changed their position causing them to look for an alternative.

“This resulted in the Zebras suffering the worst circumstances, which resulted in them arriving on the day of the game. This is unfortunate. I am falling short to say it’s embarrassing on our part, hence our unreserved apology,” he said.

Morule, however, commended all the supporters who were at the stadium, and the Zebras for their gallant fight against Egypt despite the challenges they had endured before the game. He said overtime, the performance of the Zebras had been gradually improving, adding that even other codes like beach volleyball, tennis and basketball 3x3 have progress well to other stages than they had been doing before.

“However, this comes at a cost that we must manage, and this is where I believe going forward we must try and balance the preparation for performance and cost,” he said.

The BNSC chairperson said given that Botswana sport generally remain heavily reliant on government funding, and as a parastatal responsible for advising government on appropriate matters on sport funding, they have to continuously attempted to find ways that were cost effective.

Morule said the cost management includes taking care of the cost of the national teams, including the Zebras’ competition in their ongoing AFCON qualifiers campaign. The Botswana Football Association, he said, provided the budget of over P18 million for six fixtures involving the Zebras playing three countries on home and away basis, including preparation.

“For the record, government disbursed P5 million towards the first two fixtures, that is an away game Mauritania and against Egypt at home,” he added.

He said the funding was therefore availed to the BNSC on August 19. In that regard, he said they had already spent the money and slightly exceeded what they were provided with for the two games that the Zebras played.