Strong Collaboration Between Botswana & Namibia To Feature 2027 AFCON

Southern African neighbours Botswana and Namibia have joined forces in an effort to host the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations. Rallying support from other members of the Council of Southern Africa Football Associations (COSAFA), the two nations are hoping to bring the tournament back to the south, 14 years after it was staged in South Africa.

Botswana and Namibia signed a Memorandum of Agreement on June 10, 2022, agreeing to host AFCON together should their bid be successful.

As per the agreement, Botswana will contribute 60 percent of the resources required to stage the tournament and take the equivalent share of proceeds and benefits. Namibia, in turn, will provide and proclaim the lesser, 40 percent, share.

Furthermore, Namibia will host the opening ceremony of the tournament, following which the nation will provide sites for 12 of the 36 group stage ties.

Two-thirds of the group games will take place in Botswana, along with five of the eight round-of-16 ties. Lastly, the two nations will split the quarter-final and the semi-final ties equally, but Botswana will stage the third-place play-off, the final, and the closing ceremony.

Following the announcement, the president of the Botswana Football Association, Maclean Letshwiti, called upon people on both sides of the border to unite for a common goal. The bid known as BONA2027 represents the entire Southern African region, which last hosted an AFCON in 2013 – and has done so only thrice since the competition’s inception.

“If we have never been united as a people, this is the moment to do so. I guess I am also speaking to my brothers and sisters on the Namibian side’’ he said.

Tumiso Rakgare, the Botswana Minister of Youth, Gender, Sport, and Culture, inspired by their neighbors to the South, South Africa, and their successful organization of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, promised to see through the bidding process despite competition from some of the Northern and Western African heavyweights.

“The 2010 World Cup has demonstrated not just hope and faith, it has without a doubt inspired all of us with the euphoria that anything is possible if you work towards a common goal and objective. I reiterate my commitment to this bidding process, and I pledge without an iota of doubt, Botswana’s commitment to the course,” he promised.

The hosts will be declared in early 2023 by the Ordinary CAF General Assembly. Competing against Botswana and Namibia are Morocco, Senegal, Burkina Faso, Zambia, Uganda, and Tanzania. Meanwhile, CAF has already awarded the hosting rights of AFCON 2023 to Ivory Coast and 2025 to Guinea.