Botswana is one of the countries bidding to host the 2027 tournament.
There is competition from Egypt, Algeria, and a joint bid from East African countries, Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda. The CAF executive meeting in Rabat comes days before the continental mother body holds its Ordinary General Assembly in Ivory Coast on July 13.
The Botswana technical bid committee, led by Ashford Mamelodi is expected to travel to Ivory Coast to curry favour with delegates from CAF’s 54-member associations.
CAF is expected in Botswana any day to carry out facilities inspection. The timeline for inspecting facilities in all the bidding countries is July 1-15. However, Mamelodi said he was unaware of when the CAF delegation will be in town for the inspection.
Next month, CAF will announce the 2025 and 2027 AFCON finals host. In recent weeks, Botswana has ramped up efforts to win a bid which began with a stutter after a co-host partner, Namibia pulled out at the 11th hour.
However, the Minister of Youth, Gender, Sport and Culture, Tumiso Rakgare recently declared “we are in it, to win it” with a fresh belief the country could land the rights to host a major senior soccer tournament for the first time. Today’s CAF meeting in Morocco will be chaired by the federation’s president, Patrice Motsepe.
“The meeting will deliberate on a number of matters including the ongoing bidding process for the TotalEnergies CAF Africa Cup of Nations 2025 and CAF Africa Cup of Nations 2027,” CAF said in a statement.
Next week’s CAF Ordinary General Assembly to be held in Abidjan will also be on the agenda for today’s meeting. Letshwiti is a member of the CAF executive and the bidding committee is partly banking on his network to influence his compatriots at the headquarters of African football. The BFA president said he would discuss his trip after today’s meeting.
