07 Aug 2025

Gaborone United ladies team has been drawn into Group B for the CAF Women’s Champions League qualifiers.

The other two teams in Group B are Young Buffaloes of eSwatini and Lesotho’s Kick4Life. The draw was conducted on Tuesday. The competition will be held in August 22-31 in Johannesburg, South Africa. The Red Roses, as Gaborone United ladies team is affectionately known, qualified for the tournament by virtue of being the 2025 DTCB Women’s Football Champions.

Coach William Monene said the Red Roses started their preparations for the champions league a week after their DTCB championship. He said most of his players were part of the Mares squad at WAFCON in Morocco, Casablanca and had since been incorporated into the team following their return from national duty. He was happy with progress of the team. Monene said some players were not in good physical condition, therefore a specific training was created for them to catch up with the rest of the team,

“Part of the team that remained behind while others were on national duty, managed to play two friendly games against U-20 and an international friendly against a team from Namibia,” said Monene, who explained that preparation were going well more so that players understood the assignment ahead.

Meanwhile, Group A has Mamelodi Sundowns from South Africa, Ntopwa FC from Malawi, Beauties FC of Namibia and Zambian’s Zesco Ndola Girls. Herentals Queens of Zimbabwe, CD Costa do Sol of Mozambique and Olympic de Moroni of Comoros are in Group C.

According to COSAFA, the group winners will advance to the semi-finals, joined by the best runner-up. Since Group A has four teams, the results against the fourth-placed side will not count when determining the best second-placed team. In the previous CAF Women Championship, Gaborone United settled for a sliver medal after losing 9-8 on penalties to University of the Western Cape (UWC). ENDS