24 Feb 2022

The national senior women football team players and technical staff will smile all the way to the bank; thanks to government incentives amounting to P557 500.

The Minister of Youth Empowerment, Sports and Culture Development, Tumiso Rakgare announced the government offer at a gala dinner hosted in honour of the team in Francistown on Wednesday.

The women team, alias The Mares, qualified for the Africa Women Cup of Nations (AWCON) showpiece billed for Morocco in July.  

“This is just to continue inspiring our ladies to do well and go to Morocco in high spirits. The incentives are a sign of our commitment to sport development. Qualifying for the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations is historic in many fronts as this is the first for the country,” Minister Rakgare said. 

He said each of the 21 players will pocket P20 000, while the coach and the assistant coach will receive P15 000 and P12 500 respectively. 

The 11 officials will each get P10 000. 

This was in addition to the P300 000 that Lucara gave the team prior to the first leg in Zimbabwe. 

Rakgare explained that the qualification came exactly 10 years after a similar feat by the Mares male counterparts, the Zebras.  He said qualification to this prestigious continental showpiece suggested a few things, amongst them, that the girls were immensely talented and resilient.

He explained that women’s football in Botswana was developing at a much faster rate. 

“The hunger you have is testament that you can achieve anything that you set your mind to and the sky can only be the limit,” said Rakgare. 

He appealed for support to grow the women’s game by building technical and administrative capacity at all levels and as well as improving performance. 

For her part, the Mares coach, Gaolethoo Nkutlwisang, said the campaign to Morocco had not been an easy one. 

She explained that preparations for the continental showpiece would start with earnest and the team would not disappoint. 

Nkutlwisang appealed for the nation’s support for the team to deliver good results. 

Francistown mayor, Godisang Radisigo thanked the management of the Botswana Football Association and the sports ministry for taking major sports events to Francistown. 

Meanwhile,  The Mares qualified for  AWCON through an away goal rule.

They beat Zimbabwe 3-1 in the first leg, but lost 0-2 in the second leg in Francistown. 

Final aggregate score was 3-3.

The Mares played well in the first half of the Wednesday game, but lady luck was not on their side as they failed to convert.

They also managed to prevent their opponents from scoring as the game went to recess with a 0-0 scoreline. 

In the second half, the Mighty Warriors brought out all arsenal in their quest to demolish the Mares and they were awarded in the 75th minute through captain Emmaculate Msipa’s header. 

The goal seemed to unsettle the Mares, but fired up the Warriors as they netted the second and last goal of the game in the 80th minute, through substitute Rudo Neshamba.

The Mares made some changes in an effort to inject life into the game with Osalenna Galekhutle for Keitumetse Dithebe and Theo George for Thanda Mokgabo, but the efforts did not yield the desired goals,. 

The Mares will now join Burkina Faso, Burundi, Togo, Cameroon, South Africa, Nigeria, Tunisia, Uganda, Zambia and  Morocco in the continental showpiece.

In a post-match review, assistant coach, Alex Molete said the Mares could have done better, but it was not to be, adding that the technical team now had the huge task of preparing the girls for Morocco. ends