01 Oct 2013

In football circles, the size of a country’s population does not speak much. For instance, in the recently released FIFA world rankings Cape Verde, a country with a population of just over half a million, was ranked amongst the top 10 nations in Africa. Botswana has a population of just over two million people, on par with countries line Namibia and Lesotho.

In Southern Africa, Botswana is in the same football grouping with populous nations like South Africa, Zimbabwe, DRC and Malawi under the auspices of COSAFA. Interestingly, little populated Botswana is a nation of football fanatics who have no qualms with standing neck to neck with their more established and populous counterparts in search of football glory. Botswana is made up of men, women and children who breathe, eat, walk and live football.

Batswana expect nothing but glory from all of their national heroes, regardless of whether they play for the senior national team or the junior teams.

Once in a while, a local premier league team embarks on a football sojourn, trotting into the continental field of play to represent the country in either the Champions League or CAF Winners Cup. Results have been varied, but Botswana has maintained her stance as a regular feature in continental football, pitting the country’s strength against more populous and more established African counterparts.

This begs the question; does the size of a country’s population matter in the quest for football glory? Andrew “Druza” Modo, a well known football supporter who resides in Gaborone, believes size does matter, as a nation with a larger population will have a larger number of talented players.

While he admitted that nations like China and India have failed to attain football glory despite their large populations, Druza said that is probably because such nations do not prioritize football. Modo also blamed Botswana’s lackluster performance on the tendency to import sub-standard foreign coaches who do not add value to local football. Like layers, he said coaches are recycled between teams, which erodes their value over time.

Another local football lover based in Lobatse, Lebogang Mokgotlhe, believes the key to football glory lies in strengthening development structures. He said there are less populous countries in the world who managed to attain football glory because they invested on development. Mokgotlhe said Botswana is inundated with abundant talent that sadly goes to waste because of dysfunctional development structures. In 2012, the Zebras made history by qualifying for the finals of the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) for the first time ever. However, the Zebras failed to advance to the next stage. Earlier this year the national Under-17 side also failed to progress further at the U-17 Africa Youth Championships. Clearly, football glory is far from reach for Botswana.

The Zebras have a monstrous horde of travelling supporters, who paint whatever stadia they visit blue, black and white and make the loudest noise as they rally their national team to push harder.

They repeated the same feat in Durban at the Moses Mabhida Stadium during the Zebras’ World Cup qualifiers against South Africa. For many football lovers, the thirst for football glory is becoming unbearable. As the country turned 47 years on September 30, Batswana prayed for their thirst to be quenched. They pray for the Zebras to return from the football wilderness.

What is certain, however, is that Batswana will not give up on their dream for glory and they will rally behind the Zebras. ENDS