The Voice (Francistown)
Monnakgotla Mojaki
13 May 2008
Francistown — The Botswana senior national team, Zebras, may have six points credited into their account as the World Cup and Africa Cup of Nations kick start. The free six points come in as a donation due to the non-appearance of Madagascar in the four countries group.
Botswana is pitted against Ivory Coast, Mozambique and the World's governing body, FIFA, has sacked the fourth state.
The sacking came after the government of Madagascar apparently dismissed all the football authorities in the country. FIFA does not tolerate government interference in the running of football and Madagascar has since been suspended indefinitely until they reinstate the people elected by the football family or hand over the running of the sport to the clubs to go for elections.
This basically means there is need for the fourth team in this group and unfortunately there has been no time for such to be roped in hence the six points free to all the countries in the group.
The absence of Madagascar gives the Zebras more time to prepare, as what could have been their first game is no more. The Botswana side will now play Mozambique mid June in what will be the first game for the 2010 qualifiers for the home side.
The Botswana Football Association, Chief Executive Officer, Tosh Kgotlele, has confirmed that the Confederation of African Football (CAF) has since confirmed that the three countries that were suppose to be with Madagascar will indeed get six points but at the same time the same number of points may just be deducted depending on the last games to be played.
"This is still a bit tricky and we have to seek more clarity. There are a number of factors that will be considered. First, it is the obvious highest number of points. Then there is the best goal difference; then the team with the greatest number of away goals may just qualify for the AFCON in Angola," Kgotlele explained to Voice Sport on Wednesday
The final standings will be in mid October and there will always be need to have teams judged on the same number of games played so the results of bottom placed teams may be discounted according to the BFA top boss.
Kgotlele, however, believes the three-team group is a disadvantage to the Botswana Football Association and the Zebras.
"If you have more teams it means you can cast your net a bit wider but if there are few then you are limited. Maybe we were going to get more points from Madagascar so we are at a disadvantage," Kgotlele said.
The suspension of Madagascar came after the supreme court of Madagascar rejected an appeal by the Malagasy Football Association (FMF) to defer the ministerial order that saw football suffering from political interference.
FIFA describes political interference in the running of its member associations as one of the nine crucial areas of concern.
Botswana has never qualified for an African Cup final and it still remains to be seen as to whether they will try and have an edge over other contenders in different groups. There are three slots from each group which will add up to 15 countries qualifying from the groups and Angola will be the 16th team as hosts according to information from the CAF website. As for the World Cup, there will be six slots for Africa, which is going to be for the first time as well.
While many dreamers believe Botswana can try to go for the World Cup, the realistic achievement for the BFA looks to be the 2010 AFCON. Botswana was pitted against Egypt, Mauritania and Burundi in the past AFCON and World Cup Qualifiers and managed to beat the two opponents save for Egypt at home.
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