Botswana national football team
The Botswana National Football team known as The Zebras are a football team managed by the Botswana Football Association. Although they qualified for the Africa Cup of Nations in 2012, they never qualified for the FIFA World Cup.
The Botswana national football team managed to enter the preliminary phase of the World Cup five times. It took them about 11 years after they played their first game to record their first win. It was a win against Lesotho for the championship in Germany. The Southern African football team first participated in the preliminary competition at the 1994 FIFA World Cup. There they played against the Ivory Coast and Nigeria.
The next competition they tried to qualify for was the 2002 World Cup. They played against Zambia. In that match, it was necessary to decide which team would compete in the group stage. Zambia won both matches. In the end, Zambia qualified, knocking out the Botswana team.
The Botswana football team lost from Zambia and South Africa. At that time, the Botswana team was ranked 146, which resulted in the dissatisfaction of many fans and the leadership of the football organization. Stanley Tshosane replaced Colwyn Rowe, though Colwyn managed to place the team in the highest FIFA rankings. The football team then ranked 95th on the FIFA world ranking. The initial disappointments were followed by a successful period for the national team.
Botswana managed to qualify for the Africa Cup of Nations and climb to 53rd place on the FIFA world ranking. Unfortunately, there were again failures. Despite wins against Guinea Bissau and Burundi Botswana team finished in the last place in their group. At the FIFA World Cup 2018 qualifiers, they failed to pass the group stage of the competition.
In addition to the national football team, there is a club competition called the Botswana Premier League. There are competing clubs like BDF XI Gaborone, Mochudi Center Chiefs, Security Systems Otse, Gaborone United, Extensions Gunners Lobatse, Orapa United, Jwaneng Galaxy, Township Rollers Gaborone.
