Tour games confirmed for City's visit to Southern Africa. City will play a prestigious friendly against Botswanaâs national team during their pre-season tour of the Southern African country. The match will be played at the National Stadium in the capital Gaborone on Thursday, July 24th (7pm kick-off, 6pm UK time). It will be the second fixture played on tour, with a match against Botswana Premier League champions Township Rollers on Monday, July 21st (5pm kick-off, 4pm UK time), also at the National Stadium in Gaborone. The National Stadium in Botswana has capacity for 21,000 and with City being the first UK team to tour the country, both fixtures are sure to prove extremely popular with locals. Majority shareholder Steve Lansdown told bcfc.co.uk: âIt is very exciting for Bristol City to be the first UK team to visit Botswana and open up links with this football-mad country. âTo be honoured with games against their Premier League champions and the national team shows how much they value our visit. âI am certain this will be a great experience for all the management, players and supporters who make the trip." Botswanaâs national team are midway through their 2015 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying campaign, with a two-legged tie against Guinea-Bissau awaiting them in the second round. They are aiming to qualify for only the second time in their history, having reached the 2012 finals in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea. Township Rollers have won the Botswana Premier League a record 12 times, as well as claiming the Coca-Cola Cup six times. A group of supporters are joining the Bristol City Community Trust on their own tour to Botswana, and will attend both games. The team travels first to South Africa on July 12th for a training camp in Rustenburg, before heading north for the second part of the tour, where they will play two matches as well as engaging in community visits. bcfc.co.uk will be providing full coverage of the tour, with exclusive blogs and videos on the clubâs YouTube channel. Read more at http://www.bcfc.co.uk/news/article/20140703-botswanatour-1714027.aspx#gJvfW5WrWwhSKMDj.99
Lets hope we don't all end up with malaria Its no joke - a friend of mine got it a few years ago, and its nasty
Botswana are ranked 92nd in the world just behind Northern Ireland and just ahead of countries like Angola, Palestine, Cuba, Georgia, New Zealand and Estonia.
This is great for our club and players. Nice to see they are treating us with respect and should be a good experience for all involved
Been to Gabs the capital, and it isn't malarial v the North of the Country. The tour itself is silly. Charidee starts home.
The tour isn't silly. It widens our links, It's somewhere new for the players and coaching staff, and our community trust along with fans have gone over to help. It really makes our club stand out. I for one think it's a great idea. Plus pre season is just about getting the players back to match fitness etc and I'd rather they do it against Botswana's national team rather than the likes of Forest green rovers or Clevedon town...
Having lived in Africa and been to Gaberone and other parts of Botswanna I must have the wrong type of eyes to see what this widen "our" links sketch is. There are better gigs in Europe. More of Citys community could go and afford it. Stand out = English Clubs already play in Africa. It's somewhere new for the players and coaching staff ... Thats the schools and kids clubs in BS3 and BS4 the club do NOT go to. While the club are out on Steve's East Africa jolly 4 - 5000 will be at a kids tournament in BS3 ... City won't be ... AGAIN.
Bristol City Community trust were at Yate Utd's kids tournament this weekend. I hope this will be contiued at other large kids tournaments while City are in Africa.
Plenty of Bristol City shirts on show over the weekend, but no Bristol City as far as I can see unlike Yate. This is where I would like to see the Community Trust instead of Africa.
