Botswana President Wanted Iran Game Cancelled, WikiLeaks Cable Reveals

Botswana's President Ian Khama was seething when he was told that his country's football federation had arranged a friendly match against the Iranian national team, summoning his minister for sport and the head of the football federation to a meeting at his residence to ask "why they had organized a football match with a country like Iran," a recently released cable from WikiLeaks reveals.

"Khama complained that Iran was undemocratic and treated women badly. He said that Iran had been trying to open diplomatic relations with Botswana, but that he would not allow Iran to open an Embassy here in Botswana," according to the June 2009 United States diplomatic cable.

A representative from the Botswana Football Federation (BFA) told the president that Iran was a member of FIFA, football's world governing body, "and that they did not consider politics when accepting the match."

Khama "grudgingly" conceded that the game should go ahead and said he would attend "but told the BFA that they had to ensure that he and his delegation were seated as far away as possible from any Iranian officials attending the match."

The match against Iran was played on July 5, 2009 at the national stadium in the capital Gaborone and Botswana, ranked 78th in the world and known as the Zebras, tied 1-1 against the Iranians, ranked 53rd by FIFA.

The cable goes on to note Khama's "principled" stance and that he'd previously had a strong position on North Korea's and Zimbabwe's human rights abuses.

More recently, Khama has publicly said Sudan's President Omar al Bashir, wanted by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity, would be arrested if he set foot on Botswanan soil.

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