As Batswana, we were greatly thrilled when our national squad (The Zebras) qualified for their maiden AFCON tournament billed for Equatorial Guinea and Gabon early next year.
From day one, we rallied behind the team until we became the first African nation to qualify for the continental showpiece.
The road to the qualification was bumpy but we nonetheless managed and in the process eliminated some of the continent’s football power houses.
It would appear that through the qualification, we were not aware of the financial challenges the whole success had put us into.
Which reminds one of the way Botswana has been cut out of the loop of countries that receive international donor assistance because somehow we are deemed successful.
Nothing is more painful when you have to pay a heavy price as a result of one’s success.
In the football circumstances, blame cannot be apportioned to any party (be it government or the football governing body ÔÇô that is, the Botswana Football Association) because none of them had experience of the challenges that the qualification entailed.
This is especially so because this was the first time that the former whipping boys of Africa had exalted themselves to such great heights.
In fact, very few Batswana had ever imagined that as a country we would be playing at this tournament any time soon.
It is now clear that the qualification has come with great financial challenges which we must one way or the other surmount.
Expenses associated with the preparations for the continental showpiece are so huge for a country that is just emerging from the worst economic melt down and struggling to balance its budget.
We are elated that the government has so far displayed eagerness to help the team in all ways possible to ensure that our debut appearance is not going to be a wasted effort.
We are, however, concerned with the turn of events at the CAF headquarters where certain decisions regarding broadcasting rights of the AFCON games were done.
Batswana, and citizens of other participating countries would certainly be happy to watch the games live on their national televisions.
Alas, that dream seems far-fetched given the deal that CAF has outsourced games’ rights to Sports Five whose asking price for live broadcasts by other channels is way beyond what many African countries can afford.
The P15 million Sports Five asking price is in all fairness too high a price tag for us to afford even to call on our government to consider.
And it appears we are no way near to raising that kind of money to spend on a single event in addition to other associated costs that are related to the preparations for our appearance or participation.
We are informed that the preparations have already gobbled around P6 million even before we have set our foot at the prestigious tournament. More millions are still needed to prepare the team.
Although we are not privy to the CAF/Sports Five deal, we are concerned that most of the participating countries may not be able to televise live the games for the benefit of their citizens.
In that context, it would have made sense to us if CAF had ensured that the Sport Five asking price is subsidized by the continental association one way or the other.
Alternatively, the asking price for the participating countries should have been lowered to enable national televisions to televise the games live for their citizenry.
Many Batswana are too poor to subscribe to watch the games on DStv.
If it means digging deeper into the Alcohol Levy Fund, let it be. This is too big an opportunity for Batswana to miss. It is a life time opportunity that we must all embrace.
At the end of the day, we ask ourselves whether, by granting Sport Five the Games’ rights, CAF has not sold out poor African countries which are struggling to make ends meet.
