BFA moves swiftly to replace da Rosa
Chakalisa Dube | Tuesday October 22, 2024 09:48
Da Rosa announced his shock departure on Tuesday night during a press briefing immediately after his charges downed Cape Verde by a solitary goal at the Obed Itani Chilume Stadium in Francistown. Da Rosa said he chose to leave because so many key decisions were taken without his input including not participating in the African Nations Championships (CHAN) tournament. Da Rosa has since joined Libyan side, Al Ahly Tripoli. His departure left the BFA in a quandary because the team is closer to qualifying for the 2025 AFCON edition. A win at home against Mauritania will take the Zebras to the 2025 AFCON edition. Jwaneng Galaxy coach, Morena Ramoreboli has been tipped to take over on an interim basis for the upcoming matches against Mauritania and Egypt. Additionally, Peter Butler is being considered as a long-term solution, potentially leading the team to the 2025 AFCON finals.
Sources have told MmegiSport that an announcement on the interim coach will be made before the end of today (Friday). The BFA technical committee was scheduled to convene yesterday to decide on the coach. “The technical and development committee will decide what should be done to achieve our short-term goal, which is to win against Mauritania. The committee will have to meet soon to recommend to the National Executive Committee (NEC), the person who will take over. The technical and development committee is led by BFA Vice President-Technical Tico Marenga Kamati. Obviously, the technical director will be there as well,” Mfolo said in a Wednesday interview in Francistown. “A win against Mauritania is what we really need. The meeting will be urgent because the FIFA break is from November 11-19. This then means that our match against Mauritania will be around November 14 or 15 before we head to Egypt,' he added.
Talking about Da Rosa's departure, Mfolo said to the best of his knowledge, the coach was happy in his job. He added that the Frenchman wrote a letter indicating that he intended to leave just ahead of the away clash against Cape Verde last week. “We did not want to announce that the coach intends to leave because we did not want to destabilise the camp,” he said. He was, however, quick to acknowledge that the team improved a lot under the 55-year-old coach.