The Botswana women's national football team nicknamed 'The Mares' (Female) is the women's national football team of Botswana and is controlled by the Botswana Football Association. They qualified for their maiden Africa Women Cup of Nations (AWCON) tournament that will be held in Morocco in July 2022.
Botswana played in the qualification for the 2002 African Championship, but lost in their first game. After this, they also took part in the qualification for the 2008 African Championship, where they played two matches and lost both to Namibia at the end of 2007. Botswana did not play again until the qualification for the 2010 Championship, where they lost both matches, this time against Democratic Republic of the Congo. For these games, Botswana named an entirely U20 national team. They have also played games since they were eliminated from qualification.
History
Botswana played their first match in Harare, Zimbabwe on April 19, 2002, against South Africa in a series of friendlies. They lost 14–0. After this match they lost 3–0 against Swaziland and 7–1 against Mozambique, in where they scored their first goal.
Botswana's first major competition was in the 2008 African Women's Championship, in where after 5 years they played an international match, this time against Namibia. Zebras lost both legs by 3–0 and 6–1.
Botswana had played with Zambia on 4 May 2008 and lost 4–2.
With a U20 team, Zebras played 2010 African Women's Championship qualifiers against Congo DR and again lost both legs, this time by 2–0 and 5–2 and did not qualify for either the 2010 African Women's Championship and the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup
A series of friendlies occurred in October 2010, against Zambia on 2 and 23 October, lost 1–4 and 1–2 respectively; against Tanzania on 25 October and 26 October, lost 2–3 and draw 1–1.