Portsmouth's Haji Mnoga suffers Tanzania frustration after Botswana clash scrapped at last minute over 'serious disrespect'

Botswana cancelled last Saturday’s scheduled friendly late on after accusing the Taifa Stars of committing ‘serious disrespect’.

The argument centres on Tanzania having organised three Tier 1 friendlies during the current FIFA international break, rather than the permitted two.

As a consequence, the Botswana Football Association (BFA) claimed their game would have been downgraded to a ‘practice match’, thereby becoming a Tier 2 fixture.

The cancellation meant Mnoga was unable to follow up last week’s debut for Tanzania, having been handed 45 minutes in a 3-1 victory over Central African Republic.

However, they now meet Sudan on Tuesday evening, representing the final international match of this current window for the Pompey youngster.

In a statement, the BFA said: ‘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.’

Mnoga, who has featured 15 times for Pompey, is presently on loan at National League strugglers Weymouth for the remainder of the season.

The Somerstown youngster’s dad, Suleiman, previously represented the under-17 side of Zanzibar, an autonomous region of Tanzania, before moving to England to live.

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