10 May 2023

Botswana will have six venues to host the AFCON 2027, should the country win the bid.

The three existing stadia in Gaborone, Lobatse and Francistown will be renovated, while Maun, Kasane and Greater Gaborone will acquire new stadia because more venues are needed.

Botswana bid committee chairperson, Ashford Mamelodi said in an interview that Greater Gaborone would have a 40 000-seater stadium as per CAF requirement.

“Francistown’s Itani Chilume Stadium will be renovated to the capacity of 40 000 seats, Lobatse 20 000, and the two facilities in Maun and Kasane will have maybe 15 000 seater [stadia],” he said. Mamelodi said Reuben Reddy Architects (RRA) would be drawing all the stadia designs.

He said the lead consultant would also take care of the road infrastructure such as those leading to nearby hospitals.

Talking about the bid book, he said RRA would be done with the bid book on May 20, adding that the following morning it would be in Gaborone.

“The first bid book [copy], if possible, if His Excellency and ministers are available, should go to them, and then the same day of May 21 we will send it to Cairo, subject to flights availability,” he said.

Furthermore, Mamelodi said after receiving the bid book, the committee would be in a better position to know ‘the size of the animal’.

“In the bid book we will then see the overall costs associated with hosting AFCON IN 2027, obviously issues of preparing the national team for 2027 has a separate budget, but they will assist us with the hosting budget,” the bid chairperson said. Mamelodi said in their quest to produce the bid book it was important that all the different stakeholders help the lead consultant with the relevant information for them to complete the bid book.

The book, he said, was a sales pitch, and it is everything about Botswana, entailing what we pride ourselves with, elements of tourism, how Botswana is politically structured including football.

“All these things add value to us in achieving the nod from CAF, but also what is important is the government guarantees.”

The chairperson said they met with accounting officers on Tuesday to give them an update that the bid was on course.

He said they also discussed the lobby strategy they were trying to run with, adding that they would want the approval from the permanent secretary. Ends