Bid deal sealed
Larona Makhaiza | Friday June 10, 2022 13:10
The Minister of Youth, Gender, Sport and Culture, Tumiso Rakgare and her Namibian counterpart, Agnes Tjongarero put pen to paper, signalling the official start of works towards submitting the joint bid.
The Botswana and Namibia bid will face competition from among others, Morocco and Senegal who have made their intentions to host the competition, clear. In the co-hosting arrangement, it was revealed during the signing ceremony that Botswana would contribute 60% of the resources, while Namibia has a 40% stake. If the bid is successful, Namibia will host the opening ceremony, while Botswana gets the final and closing ceremony. Botswana will host 24 out of 36 group matches while Namibia will have 12 matches. Botswana will get five of the eight round of 16 matches. The quarterfinals and semi finals will be shared equally between the two nations. “The same applies with sharing proceeds of hosting the competition. The two nations have got the support of the Council of Southern Africa Football Associations (Cosafa),” Tjongarero said.
Veteran Botswana football administrator, Ashford Mamelodi will spearhead the bidding technical committee as the chairperson. Mamelodi’s vice chairperson is from Namibia. The bidding technical committee together with the two ministers will attend a workshop scheduled for Gaborone where they will get to kick-start the bid preparations.
Rakgare pleaded with the government, business owners, non-governmental organisations to support the bid effort. The two countries will now work on the hosting budget, and do a due-diligence on facilities. In Botswana, the National Stadium, the Lobatse Sports Complex and the Obed Itani Chilume Stadium are some of the venue likely to be used if the bid is successful.