31 Dec 2025

Just like in their first Africa Cup Of Nations (AFCON) finals appearance in 2012, Botswana has bowed out of the tournament in the group stages.

The Zebras lost their opening match against Senegal 3-0, followed by a 1-0 defeat to Benin and another 3-0 thrashing by the Democratic Republic of Congo.

But, unlike the 2012 team which managed to score two goals in the 2-1 defeat to Mali and a humbling 6-1 loss against Guinea, the current crop have exited the tournament without scoring a single goal while conceding seven.

Despite the grim statistics, head coach Morena Ramoreboli has pointed out that the team tried their best even though it was not enough.

“Success is achieved by various things amongst them the way we prepare, the type of tools we use, in this situation, we are going to talk about players, the level of competition, the amount of time we spent without group to make sure that we fully prepare,” he said in an interview on Wednesday.

Ramoreboli said though it was sometimes easy to point an accusing finger at the Botswana Football Association, the technical team and players, he said it was equally important to understand that they could not jump stages. 

Instead of pointing accusing fingers, he said the nation should pause and ask if the country had the right platform and resources to produce and promote talent.

“We played three teams with a lot of players plying their trade outside their countries, 99 per cent of DRC players play in EPL, France, and Spain, and then Senegal, 90 percent if not all of them play outside their country, as is Benin,” he said.

He said the Zebras in contrast had only four players playing outside the country, and they competed with players who had been active in Champions League, and the Europa League and had matured under pressure.

“But because we lack patience and we always expect miracles, we don’t want to accept that we need to work towards improving our football, developing our players, and have more players with international experience,” he said.

The tournament, he said had given Botswana a chance to play at least 23 players, adding that as much as they did not win a 19-year-old player Losika Ratshukudu played 45 minutes at the AFCON, and Monty Enosa played about 25 minutes.

“That is something that we are doing, and the biggest challenge is that we become confused if we don’t know what we want to do,” he said.

Ramoreboli also said the standard and competition of the domestic league needs to be improved, adding that South Africa was using their local players because their league was more competitive. BOPA