As part of the bidding process, a team of inspectors from Confederation of African Football (CAF) is in Botswana to tour the country’s facilities for the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) bid.
The three inspectors are expected to tour the existing stadia, green fields, hotels, airports, and other infrastructure necessary for the successful staging of the AFCON as submitted in the bid book.
The team will visit facilities in Francistown, Kasane, Lobatse and Gaborone.
Botswana bid committee has recently travelled to Abidjan, Ivory Coast for the CAF Congress to meet the 22 CAF member associations and the Executive Committee Members as part of the hosting rights campaign.
Apart from Botswana, there are other four bids from Algeria, Nigeria/Benin, Kenya/Uganda/Tanzania and Senegal.
The host for both AFCON 2025 and 2027 will be announced in September.
Addressing the media this week, the BIDCO Chairman Ashford Mamelodi said the bid is now becoming more competitive and that Botswana has to do everything in its power to position itself as the best candidate.
He said the feedback they got from 18 potential voters was very positive and that they were impressed by their bid book.
“We have delivered to CAF what we believe is the best bid book and on that score, we are not worried. The decision is within the 22 CAF Executive Committee Members and it was important to meet them and leave a lasting impression on them. We made an impact and we made sure all Exco members who were at the congress got a copy of the bid book. Most of them spoke very highly of the professionalism of our team and the seriousness with which we are taking the bidding process. South Africa and COSAFA already took a stand that they are supporting us and for that we are very thankful,” said Mamelodi
The Chairman said the impact was significant but there is now a need for follow ups and to visit potential voters to their home countries.
He said the CAF inspectors have been specific and told Botswana what they want to see during their three day visit.
Mamelodi said last Friday that the auditors would fly to Francistown to audit the facilities and the same day they flew to Kasane.
“In between there will be briefs as they tour the facilities. Saturday morning the auditors will fly back to Gaborone to do the audit. There will be Police day at the national stadium on Saturday but that will not restrict them from doing their inspection. They have identified some hospitals to visit and Princess Marina is one of them. They are also going to visit Lobatse before leaving on Sunday,” he said.