
Describing himself as English football’s answer to Phileas Fogg, Peter Butler has seen as much of the world in a 14-year coaching career than most folk might see in a lifetime. From starting in the dug-out as caretaker manager of hometown club Halifax Town at the turn of the century, the former Southend and West Ham United midfielder had spent his entire coaching career going from post to post in south east Asia (and for a period in Australia) before eventually pitching up to manage the Botswana national team two years ago. The challenges that Butler would face on his arrival to Gaborone, the capital of this beautiful landlocked country in southern Africa, would be sizeable, with Botswana having only ever qualified for one major tournament, the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea. They had waited over 50 years to crack that particular nut since first attempting to qualify in the late fifties. In terms of the World Cup, Botswana have never even come close to qualification and, in fact, for 60 years between 1930 and 1990, and then again for the 1998 tournament in France, they never even entered the qualification process. Under local coach…