Zebras in camp for AFCON Qualifiers
Koketso Kgoboge | Tuesday March 15, 2016 13:51
The Botswana Football Association (BFA) chief executive officer (CEO), Kitso Kemoeng told a press here yesterday that the three-day camp started on Sunday.
“The camp will break on Thursday this week to allow players to go back to their clubs for the beMOBILE Premiership games to be played over the weekend.
The team will regroup again on Sunday for the final preparations before departing for Comoros on Tuesday,” he added.
Kemoeng said they were limited by some factors beyond their control to a short camping period and lack of friendly games for the preparations.
“We would have loved to go into these matches having engaged in decent friendly matches and staying longer in camp than we have.
“We had identified and engaged Kenya, Zambia and Zimbabwe all of whom were not available for a variety of reasons. Our last hope Lesotho fell off as the beMOBILE league had to resume this weekend.”
He said it will not be good if the Premiership matches are not played for three weekends and said the league challenge does not affect Botswana alone.
“The challenge of league commitments is not unique to Botswana and this is something we must live with.
Our long lasting solution is to continue to work to raise the standards of our leagues so that they continue to produce quality players who will need shorter periods in national team camp,” he said.
The Zebras leave for the Comoros on Tuesday for the first leg of AFCON qualifiers to be played on Thursday.
The team returns soon after the match for the second leg encounter against Comoros to be played at the Francistown Sports Complex on Sunday March 27 at 4pm.
Kemoeng said tickets for the home match have been on sale since yesterday and sales points have been increased.
“The number of tickets sales outlets are increased and this should combat ticket trafficking and keep queuing time to a minimum. We continue to appeal to Batswana all over the country to buy tickets in time in order for them to avoid the inconvenience of missing out as tickets get sold out,” he said.