Local facilities audited for AFCON 2027 bid

The team led by Ruben Reddy has covered Gaborone, Lobatse, Francistown, Maun and its final destination is Kasane, which will be visited this week. Reddy said after Kasane, sites visits will be over and they will look at the gap between CAF compliance and what is on the ground. “We have done audit in all the sites, we will then come up with a report so that the gap is clear for everyone to see. We will attach cost to it so that the government and various ministries are aware of what funding is needed to meet those requirements. We will then visit Namibia and that will complete our task with the joint bid,” he said.

Reddy also said the existing gap is not a challenge because there is still time for that to be fixed. He said for now he could not state the cost until the report has been completed. He said there were gaps even in other countries that hosted major competitions like FIFA 2010 World Cup in South Africa. “From my experience I do not think we are dealing with impossibility here, it is possible. There are always state controlled procurement systems, those systems are run by people and that can be changed,” he said. For his part, Botswana and Namibia Bid Committee (BidCo) chairman, Ashford Mamelodi said it was impossible for Botswana or Namibia to host AFCON alone due to cost. He said even CAF encourages co-hosting especially by smaller countries.