Botswana, Namibia consider joint AFCON bid
Chakalisa Dube | Saturday January 22, 2022 06:00
Early this year, the Minister of Youth Empowerment, Sport and Culture Development (MYSEC), Tumiso Rakgare stated his desire to see Botswana host the 2027 AFCON. Botswana has since formally approached Namibia with a proposal that the two countries launch a joint bid to co-host the tournament and it is hoped that the Namibian government will give a response before the end of the month.
The Namibian government has also confirmed that it has been approached by Botswana to co-host the 2027 AFCON edition. Namibian is said to be keen on launching a joint bid with Botswana to host Africa’s biggest soccer tournament.
Mmegi Sport has also established that a pre-bid committee made up of officials from the BFA, MSYC and BNSC has since been appointed. Late last year the BFA made a proposal to the BNSC that a pre-bid committee be established to start preparations for the finals.
The BFA also requested that the University of Botswana (UB) be brought in as a partner to help with research and development of a business case for the tournament.
However, representatives from the university and other stakeholders will be roped in at a later stage, it is said. “An interim bid committee is already hard at work and plans for a fully-fledged bid committee to be set up soon are underway,” an insider said this week. In the event that Namibia does not accede to Botswana’s proposal, Mmegi Sport has established other neighbouring countries will be considered. Botswana reportedly prefers co-hosting the tournament because the cost of staging the event are prohibitive.
It is unclear as to whether Botswana might consider going it alone if plans for launching a joint bid with any of the neighbouring countries hits a snag. BSNC CEO Tuelo Serufho would not be drawn into discussing much about Botswana’s bid for the 2027 AFCON. 'I can confirm that we have been doing preliminary work on the bid for the 2027 AFCON finals.
Currently we are talking with our Namibian counterparts, with whom we are considering the possibility of a joint bid. We should be releasing information on how we plan to undertake the project soon,” Serufho said.