Botswana national football team
 |
|
| Nickname(s) |
Dipitse (The Zebras) |
|---|---|
| Association | Botswana Football Association |
| Confederation | CAF (Africa) |
| Sub-confederation |
COSAFA (Southern Africa) |
| Head coach | Peter Butler |
| Captain | Joel Mogorosi |
| Top scorer | Jerome Ramatlhakwane (19) |
| Home stadium | Botswana National Stadium |
| FIFA code | BOT |
| FIFA ranking | |
| Current | 113  1 (12 January 2017)
|
| Highest | 53 (December 2010) |
| Lowest | 165 (November 1999 – February 2000) |
| Elo ranking | |
| Current | 132 (21 December 2016) |
| Highest | 97 (August 2011) |
| Lowest | 187 (March 1997) |
| First international | |
 Malawi 8–1 Botswana  (Malawi; July 13, 1968) |
|
| Biggest win | |
Botswana 6–2 Swaziland  (Gaborone, Botswana; March 2, 2002) |
|
| Biggest defeat | |
|
Malawi 8–1 Botswana (Malawi; July 13, 1968) Botswana 0–7 Zimbabwe  (Gaborone, Botswana; August 26, 1990) |
|
| Africa Cup of Nations | |
| Appearances | 1 (first in 2012) |
| Best result | Group stage, 2012 |
The Botswana national football team, nicknamed 'The Zebras' (Setswana: Dipitse) is the national football team of Botswana and is controlled by the Botswana Football Association. They have never qualified for the World Cup but they did qualify for the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations for the first time in their history.
Although Botswana have entered the FIFA World Cup preliminary stages five times, it took them nearly 11 years after playing their first match to register their first victory – a 4–1 victory in the African pre-preliminary qualifying rounds for Germany 2006 against Lesotho.
The southern African nation took part in their first preliminary competition for the 1994 FIFA World Cup in the USA, where they faced Niger and Côte d'Ivoire. They managed a 0–0 draw with the latter in Gaborone but lost their other three matches, finishing last in their group.
The next competition they entered was for 2002 FIFA World Cup, where they faced Zambia in a two-legged tie to decide which team would advance to the group stages. Zambia won both legs of the tie to qualify and knock Botswana out.
After this Botswana suffered some poor results with the team losing 3–0 to Zambia and losing to second-string sides from South Africa and Zimbabwe at home in Gaborone, frustrating many supporters. A draw with a Madagascar side ranked 146th in the world at the time led Botswana FA to sack manager Colwyn Rowe, despite his leading Botswana to their then-highest ever FIFA ranking of 95th. The BFA claimed this move was taken because they feared for his safety from angry fans. Stanley Tshosane was named as his replacement and in his first game in charge, Botswana achieved an impressive 2–1 win away to Mozambique to put them in a relatively strong position in their qualifying group. Despite also achieving a creditable draw with Côte d'Ivoire, Botswana finished bottom of their qualifying group for the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa.
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