Botswana confident of landing 2027 Africa Cup Of Nations bid

Botswana is up against Algeria, Egypt, and a three-way joint bid from East African nations Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda to stage the biennial event.

The Confederation of African Football (CAF) is expected to announce the hosts for both the 2025 and 2027 editions in July and, speaking to SABC Sport this past weekend, Letshwiti says hosting AFCON will work on their advantage in improving their sporting facilities.

"Some of the aspirations of the president of CAF [Patrice Motsepe] is to use this competition to improve sporting facilities. So, I think it's our chance as Botswana to host a major competition like this. To have an opportunity to upgrade our sporting infrastructure," he said.

Botswana has enlisted the services of experienced South African-based company Reuben Reddy Architects (RRA) to come up with a compelling bid book.

CAF’s deadline for submissions is 23 May, and Letshwiti believes they are well on course to meet the bid deadline.

"As far as compiling the bid and submitting the bid, we are ready to do that. The inspection committee will be inspecting the facilities that we are going to construct and all that will be in place by the time the inspection comes to Botswana," he explained.

23 May is also the deadline for hosting agreements, host cities, and government guarantees, while the inspection committee is expected in Botswana early in June. SABC Sport has learned that Botswana plans to have six venues for the 2027 AFCON finals, renovating the existing three in Gaborone, Lobatse, and Francistown, while building new stadia in Maun, Kasane, and Greater Gaborone.

"The venues are what CAF requires, you need four stadiums and two world-class stadiums, 40 000 hosting capacity and a host of training grounds. So, we just have to comply with CAF requirements."

South Africa (1996 & 2013) and Angola (2010) remain the only two nations in the Southern African region to have hosted the AFCON finals.