Ramoreboli is taking charge of his first Zebras camp after being appointed a substantive Zebras’ head coach in January. He lost his first match 3-1 to Algeria in the World Cup qualifiers. He will lead the Zebras this evening against Somalia. The tactician’s appointment was first not kindly received by the Botswana Football Coaches Association. They argued that proper channels were not followed with Ramoreboli’s appointment as the post was advertised but was filled without the conduction of interviews. The association is said to have written to stakeholders including the Labour Office, Ministry of Sports and Arts, and the Botswana National Sports Commission. SportMonitor is informed that Ramoreboli has since been given a short-term three months work permit as the battle for his appointment surges on.
On the eve of the Algeria tie, the gaffer faced a revolt from the players. Though the revolt was not directed towards the coach, the players threatened to boycott facing the North Africans due to owed allowances. This was seen as a move from external forces to disturb the camp as suspicions of boardroom wars once again were spilling in to the field. The Zebras missed captain, Thatayaone Ditlhokwe, as the player was at loggerheads with the Botswana Football Association (BFA) leadership. Ditlhokwe was reportedly instructed to issue an apology after he flew from his base in Libya directly to Francistown where the game was played, ignoring advice that he should join the rest of the squad in Gaborone. On Sunday morning and just two days before the Zebras took on Somalia, the authorities were in talks over the players’ allowances as the squad once threatened to boycott the tie. In his first camp, Ramoreboli’s camp has seen more action off the field than in. The South African has since come out to say that despite the unsavoury environment, he will not quit Zebras’ role.
