21 May 2025

As the Total Energies CAF Women’s Africa Cup of Nations, Morocco 2024, draws near, the Botswana senior national team, The Mares, is also preparing for the tournament, which will be held in Morocco from July 5-26.

The Mares are in the same boat as Nigeria, Tunisia, and Algeria, and they will leave for South Africa to compete in the three-nation cup as part of the WAFCON preparations.

The three nations competing are The Mares, Banyana Banyana of South Africa, and the Copper Queens of Zambia.

Mares coach Alex Malete said with unwavering determination and good preparation and planning, the country could achieve its ultimate goal of qualifying for the WAFCON.

He reassured that their preparations for WAFCON were well on track, emphasizing that their journey started immediately after qualifying for the tournament.

He said they had local and international training camps, adding that of all the 12 teams that had qualified for WAFCON, in terms of the number of games each nation played, last year, the Mares were the second nation to play 10 games.

“So I want to thank everyone who ensured we played more games to prepare the team. 

The only country that played many games played 12, and we were two games short,” he said.

Malete said they had an opportunity to play against Russia, Morocco, Tunisia, and Mali, adding that the country also falls in the top 10 in the CAF rankings, but Russia was ranked number 24 in the world the time they played against them.

Therefore, the coach said the quality of the opponents they played in preparation for the WAFCON tournament was good.

He said that with some days to go before the tournament, the next FIFA week starts on May 26, and the Mares started their camp on Wednesday.

Malete said they would use FIFA week to play WAFCON defending champions Banyana Banyana and Zambia, who were also good sides, given that they played at the last World Cup and had qualified for the Olympics back-to-back.

“It shows the magnitude, the stature of the opponents that we are going to play, and we eagerly welcome the three-nation tournament, as it is going to help us to prepare. 

With each game, we play, with each victory, we taste each loss, we will take the lessons from them, and they will make us better,” he said, radiating optimism. ENDS