Gaborone — Botswana Football Association (BFA) has parted ways with Zebras coach Mogomotsi Mpote.
According to sources, the BFA is eyeing an Arab coach with expectation that he will help the Zebras to qualify for both AFCON and 2026 World Cup.
The Zebras will play against Mozambique on November 18 and Guinea on November 21 for FIFA World Cup Qualifiers 2026 to be played in Francistown.
Although some of football pundits are of the very that firing Mpote in the middle of the campaign may come back and hunt BFA, the federation think otherwise.
According to their press release, they have parted with Mpote following an internal assessment and evaluation of where the Zebras are currently and where they want to be.
The release says the Zebras will be entering a difficult and demanding era as they try to qualify for both the AFCON and the World Cup 2026.
It says the decision was taken with the interests of the Zebras at heart, adding that the BFA National Executive Committee led by its president Maclean Letshwiti has already started a process to ensure that Mpote's successor takes over the Zebras reins in a seamless way.
Rb2 sport presenter, Solomon Kakuwa, who has been closely monitoring the Zebras performance, said Mpote had been trying to build a team since he got in office.
He said he introduced a couple of young talents from all the clubs but clearly it did not work for him.
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Kakuwa said Mpote wanted to have a pool of players to select the national team from but Batswana were never patient with him.
"He is not a bad coach and he is someone that you can trust him with players but sometimes his team selection and tactics were so questionable.
But the truth is we can get whoever we think can coach the Zebras but without proper development and structures we not going anywhere." he said.
Mpote was appointed the Zebras coach last year in November in a three-year contract after taking over as an interim coach following the departure of Adel Amrouche in July 2021.
He was tasked with qualifying for the 2024 Africa Nations Championships, win the 2024 COSAFA Cup and to take the Zebras to Top 30 in Africa.
Another task was to qualify for the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations final.
BOPA
