01 Mar 2015

Senior national football team coach, Peter Butler, says being drawn against South Africa in the COSAFA Senior Championships is a welcome development. 

The February 26 COSAFA draw pitted Zebras against their nemesis, Bafana Bafana.

In an interview, Butler said Botswana against South was a good game to play and he was looking forward to it. Although he did not wish to comment about the game, saying it was a long way off, he said, “the encounter is a great opportunity to show where we are and how far we have come.” 

The two sides last met in 2013, in a world cup qualifier match played at Moses Mabhida stadium, with South Africa winningt 4-1 winners. Because of their higher FIFA rankings, the Zebras managed to avoid the group stages and would only enter competition in the quarterfinals.

The lower eight teams in the February FIFA rankings would compete in the group stages and were drawn into two pools each of four teams. COSAFA roped in Ghana and Tanzania as guest nations after Angola and Comoros declined to participate in the competition.

A press release from COSAFA stated that 14 countries were split into two groups being: lower ranked eight teams and top ranked six teams as per last month’s (Feb) FIFA rankings. Therefore eight teams would compete in the group phase, divided into two groups of four.

The release also stated that the top four ranked teams from the eight were seeded in groups A and B (Tanzania, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Lesotho) and winner of each group would advance to the quarter-final round while six top ranked teams would be joined by winners of the group phase in the quarterfinal round. COSAFA says winners of the four quarter final matches advance to the semi-final round and ultimately to the 3rd/4th classification or final.

Losers of the four quarter final matches advance to the plate semi-final round, whereas winners of two matches advance to the plate final. ENDS