The Mares chase Paris 24 Olympics slot

Botswana senior women's national team, 'The Mares' will face the winner between Congo and Tanzania in their bid to secure a spot in the prestigious Paris 24 Olympic tournament in the second round of qualifiers that will be played between 23rd and 31st of October 2023.

The draw for the Paris 2024 women’s Olympic Football Tournament took place in Cairo, Egypt last week. The Mares have shown outstanding accomplishment by becoming the first women AFCON debutants ever to reach the knockout stage of the Total Energies women’s Africa cup of nations that was held in Rabat Morocco and have received much praise for their great performance at the continental level.

Botswana is now ranked 7th in Africa and for that reason they will now have to enjoy the fruits of their remarkable performance by playing in the second round of the qualifying tournament for the Paris 2024 Olympic women’s football tournament, while other countries are battling in the first round of the qualifiers. Local Women’s football is growing rapidly, and brings more opportunities for women footballers as some of the players have gone abroad. Recently Mamelodi Sundowns Ladies team signed the Mares' forward, Refilwe Tholakele.

Botswana Football Association (BFA) Technical Director, Tshepo Mphukuthi said the team will report for camp on every women’s FIFA dates from now on to continue their preparations for the upcoming fixture. He said they are working on readjusting their program to cater for the matches.

“We will do all the necessary to ensure the team gets the much-needed support for these qualifiers because this will be another chance for them to showcase their incredible talent and display their skills internationally in a high ranked tournament,” Mphukuthi said. He stated that the squad will be a blend of some players that took part in the AFCON, The Council of Southern Africa Football Associations (COSAFA) tournament and any other player who can be essential to the squad.

The nine winners from the first round will join the seven highest-ranked teams for the second round, involving 16 teams who will proceeds with eliminations until the final two. In the last Olympic Games held in Tokyo, Africa was represented by Zambia.