In honour of Women’s Month, it’s probably time the South African football leadership started thinking about a separate sitting to put together a solid plan for women’s football in the country.
The man’s game has it’s fair share of challenges and deserves its own meeting and solutions.
It’s always been about the manne until now, like the Adam and Eve Bible story, the women’s game is developed based on whatever decision is made in the men’s game.
Banyana Banyana have been delivering on expectations; they’ve put up a proper challenge to Nigeria for the African Queens crown, they’ve qualified for the Olympics and World Cup.
And just this past weekend, they won a third straight Cosafa Cup title to cement their status as the dominant force in Southern Africa.
Desiree Ellis’s charges did not lose or draw a single game and did not even need extra time or penalties for their victories in PE my bru.
So, it’s really time to put some respect on the Banyana name and we need to stop assuming that they can continue achieving off scraps from Bafana Bafana.
Banyana are set for a busy period with qualification for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics around the corner.
The big challenge is how they are going to manage the transitional period by dropping the older players and blood the younger players.
This was apparently a big issue in the build-up to the World Cup, with a few of the experienced campaigners who were regulars feeling underappreciated in favour of young players who did not even contribute to getting the team to France.
THE DOMINANT FORCE: Queens of Southern African football. Photo: Supplied.
It is crucial that this is managed properly, much like how Germany managed their decision to cut Mats Hummels, Jerome Boateng and Thomas Muller from the national team.
Head coach Joachim Low and team manager Oliver Bierhoff met with each of the players and explained their decision to go forward with the plan before they went public.
The older Banyana players deserve a similar type of respect for their contribution to women’s football.
Cutting them from the team does not mean they should not be able to contribute to the continued growth of the game.
The Basetsana side could only claim bronze in the U20 version of the Cosafa Women’s Championship.
They were supposed to be an example of continuity, as the team was managed by Siphiwe Dludlu, who was recently with the U17 Bantwana at the World Cup earlier this year.
Clearly there is a problem there, if the younger girls are not dominating the region like their seniors.
We need to fix it. Women’s Month should not only be about politics. Football should also fix the problems within for the benefit of empowering women and developing women champions!