29 Sep 2014

When Botswana attained independence in 1966, the only decent facility was the National Stadium with only one stand which today is called the grand stand.

In fact the National Stadium was also used for hosting decent football matches, and the rest were dusty grounds that clearly made football development a challenge.

According to Ashford Mamelodi who has witnessed the transformation of the National Stadium to its current status, there has been a huge improvement on the state of playing facilities throughout the country since independence

Mamelodi said the mines in Orapa, Jwaneng and Selebi Phikwe then came to the rescue with the development of decent sporting facilities including turfed football pitches. 

He said the development of integrated sports facilities by government in various parts of the country was a good thing as it was now possible to provide turfed facilities at least for the elite league including a good number of fixtures for the next football tier league.

He said other sports codes benefited from the general upgrade of facilities, citing the Cricket Oval as a case in point.

Mamelodi said as compared to 48 years back, it is now possible to play all premier league games in a season on turf, especially with the expected opening of the facility in Serowe, adding this augurs well for general sport development including football.

Not forgetting where the country is coming from, he said it would be perfect if  top tier football clubs in the country now acquired land to build their turfed facilities for training.

Talking about the national team, the Zebras, Mamelodi said for a long time since 1966, there was always an annual Independence international friendly to look forward to as part of the Independence Celebrations. 

He said various countries including Zambia, Cameroon, soon after their big performance at the 1990 FIFA World Cup hosted by Italy and Ghana were a regular feature at this time.

According to Mamelodi, in 1990 Botswana Football Association executive committee led by Ismail Bhamjee resolved that the focus must move squarely to football development as they were preparing a country that had to this point never participated in international competitions, for such events. 

Although this was a start of a real ‘baptism of fire’, the then BFA Exco and technical director, Ghanaian Ben Koufie was convinced that this was the way to go.

“Although we lost momentum with the departure of Ben Koufie in 2000, when one looks back, the decision made in 1990 though hugely criticised, did pay dividends,” he said.

Today Botswana has once qualified for AFCON 2012, for the first time in the history of football, big stadiums have been built amongst them, Lobatse, Serowe, and Masunga. ENDS