eSwatini

eSwatini 2005 Home

Reebok certainly used to be a prominent figure in the national kits scene, with this eSwatini design coming in their decline from glory. Nonetheless, while simple in construction, it is a great looking design, with the main colours from the flag breaking up any chance at monotony. The rear iof the shirt looks a little plainer, but things will always look good when you have 3 all 3 primary colours there. The logo works in a central position and contrasts nicely with the rest of the shirt, standing out while being far from plain itself. There might not be much to the design, but it is definitely eye-catching!

Being fairly camera shy, it is difficult to ascertain exactly when this design was used. The away saw use in a 3-0 loss to Zambia in 2005 COSAFA Cup but otherwise it isn’t clear. Likely it saw use in 2006 World Cup qualifiers too, where eSwatini managed a 1-1 home draw against Cape Verde, but suffered a second half collapse in the away leg and lost 3-0. Those two matches would put them out of 2006 World Cup and AFCON qualification all at once.

Results like this are fairly typical for a side that regularly rank amongst the very lowest in Africa. They’ve mainly taken part in the preliminary qualifying rounds across their history and not often escaped them. They’ve even at times been inconsistent at entering tournaments. However, they have produced some significant results and twice have been fairly close to an AFCON place, even coming within 3 points of one in 2017, as part of a competitive group. Their main strengths have come in the COSAFA Cup, with 5 semi-finals from 20 appearances, though they’ve never managed better than 3^rd place. While yet to miss a CHAN, they are also yet to progress in qualification.

Their women’s football hasn’t gotten far off the ground, despite debuting as early as 1993! They entered 1998 AFCON qualification, only to lose 15-0 on aggregate to neighbours South Africa. After this, things went quiet, with them withdrawing from 2002 and 2006 qualifiers before returning for 2018 and 2022 qualifiers. 3-1 and 6-1 aggregate losses to Lesotho and Zimbabwe have ensured they’ve never progressed any further. Again, COSAFA provides some positives, with them entering the earlier competitions in 2002 and 2006 but then only returning from 2017 onwards. They’ve grabbed a handful of wins, but not yet seriously threatened the knockout stages. Plagued by withdrawals, progression is also rare for the men’s youth teams. The U20s did qualified for the 1983 championship on a walkover but withdrew after a 5-1 first leg defeat to Zimbabwe. In 2003 they hosted the U17 Championship, but lost every match, albeit narrowly to Sierra Leone and Egypt. Again there have been some positives (and at least 1 suspension) in COSAFA, but no finals to be noted. Women’s youth football is even sparser, with it being limited to a 2019 COSAFA U20 appearance (3 losses) and a 2-0 aggregate loss to Mozambique in 2022 U20 AFCON qualifiers, though they did draw the home leg.

Perhaps not surprisingly, eSwatini have never participated in either futsal or beach soccer to date.

In 2022 qualifiers eSwatini were drawn against familiar opposition in Djibouti. Perhaps overconfident against the side they thrashed 8-1 on aggregate 4 years prior, they lost 2-1 in Djibouti before being held 0-0 at home to be knocked out straight away. They did better in the latest COSAFA tournament, so they’ll have hoped for more from World Cup qualifying at least.