28 Aug 2019

Belgian Adel Amrouche has been appointed national soccer team coach. 

Botswana Football Association (BFA) president, Maclean Letshwiti unveiled the new coach at a press briefing at Lekidi on August 27.

He said the new coach was a UEFA pro license instructor and has previously coached Kenya, Burundi and Libya national teams

 Letshwiti is optimistic about Amrouche transforming local football given the level of professionalism his country was known for.

“Knowing Belgium national team progress and achievements, we can safely hope that Adel will do his very best to share his wealth of experience with us,” he said.

 He said the BFA was hopeful that the new coach would not confine himself to the senior national team’s business only, but would extend his services to other national team coaches. He added that the coach would liaise with other coaches in different structures.

 “In the past, we were simply filling classrooms with students with no teachers. We can’t be successful if we don’t produce and provide quality in both coaches and players,” he said.

Given Amrouche’s expertise, the president is counting on his know how to realise the dream  of exporting players to Europe, and not eye South Africa,

The president said their desire was to export players to ply their trade at the age of 15,

“If we export them at the age of 23 they are not going to be effective. That’s why our players in South Africa are just warming the bench. That is not good for the country,” he said, adding that time had come for local clubs to explore other markets.

He appealed to the nation to be patient with Amrouche and not expect instant results, adding that “it doesn’t mean that when we bring a world class coach to Botswana we will see results tomorrow. It’s a process. We are laying the foundation and also building for the future,” he noted.

He said the foundation they were laying would determine whether the country would be competitive to compete in major world competitions.

He indicated that as the coach had helped both Burundi and Kenya to qualify for AFCON, Botswana was hopeful to achieve the same feat.

Letshwiti said the association’s target was to win the COSAFA Cup, qualify for AFCON 2021 and CAF 2021.

For his part, Amrouche said he was happy to coach the Zebras, citing passion for his work as one of his strengths.

The coach revealed that the Zebras encounter against Angola and Mauritania gave him an insight about the team, adding that he was confident that the country had the potential to achieve a lot.

He added that if Botswana wanted to soar high in football, it was vital to change attitude towards development.

“I did my research about Botswana, and in trying to establish the number of Botswana players based in Europe, I realised that your market is South Africa only. It is good but we need our players to play for top teams in other markets,” he said

He said during his tenure in Burundi and Kenya some of the players made it to the European market.

Amrouche appealed for support from all stakeholders. Ends