Botswana have called off their supposed friendly with Tanzania, citing disrespect from their host who had already organized two more Tier 1 friendlies in the current international break.According to FIFA rules guiding Tier 1 friendlies, a country can play only two Tier 1 friendly matches at any given window, with any other match falling to the Tier 2 category.Tanzania played the Central African Republic on Wednesday evening in their first friendly match of the current break and are set to play Sudan on Saturday at 4 PM at Benjamin Mkapa Stadium.In a statement, Botswana Football Association confirmed the cancellation, adding that Tanzania extended the invite knowing they had already agreed with two other countries to play Tier 1 friendlies.Ratiba ya michezo ya Kirafiki kwenye kalenda ya FIFA itakayofanyika kwenye uwanja wa Benjamin Mkapa. @serengetilager_tz @taifastars_ @azamtvtz @tplboard pic.twitter.com/oQLqMGu2Bp— TFF TANZANIA (@Tanfootball) March 21, 2022 The FA further noted that although there was a proposal to continue with the match on a Tier 2 basis, Botswana saw no need of going ahead with the match as they felt Tanzania would not treat it with the same magnitude they would have done a Tier 1 friendly and perhaps would have rested their best players during the match.Full statement by BFABotswana’s Senior Men National Team (The Zebras)’s game scheduled to be played against Tanzania on the 26th of March 2022 has been called-off. The match was called off due to Tanzania inviting (3) countries to play them in this FIFA window.The FIFA rules guiding/regulating Tier 1 international matches clearly states that a country can only play two Tier 1 matches in a particular window.Tanzania knowingly invited Botswana to a friendly match on the 18th of March while at the same time they had also entered into the same agreement with two other countries. When the game was to be entered into the system as a Tier 1 match this was not possible as they already had two matches.Before Botswana could depart there was a proposal to only play a practice match with Tanzania which amounts to the proposed match being treated like a 2nd Tier match. As such we decided to take the unpopular decision of not playing in a match that was never in the plans. The match will also have meant Tanzania will not use their best available players.Botswana has taken this as a serious disrespect from Tanzania. The practice match carries no value to our focus on improving our FIFA rankings and playing a Tier 1 friendly ahead of the AFCON Qualifiers.The BFA is currently looking at closing on an option to play a Tier 1′ friendly match against another country that will be available before the end of this window.
