Tour of Germany proves revealing
Niedersachsen and the provincial Department of Sport, Recreation, Arts & Culture.
City Lads captain, Ndesi, said female soccer is not getting the support it deserves and every aspect of development in the sport favoured male players.
“They are well looked after because males in the country have leagues such as the Absa Premiership and Mvela League.
“There’s also tournaments like MTN Top 8, the Nedbank Cup and the African Champions League, where they get paid to play.
“For us ladies its very difficult even though we have Sasol, Absa and Pefa leagues.”
She said the Sasol League, which was played in all the provinces, “had no growth at all”.
“A national professional league where we would get paid salaries equivalent to our male counterparts would make a huge difference in making sure that our football grows and we would also prosper.
“That would ensure that we are able to compete with other countries,” she asked.
Ndesi, who is one of the top goalscorers in the SASOL League and to date has scored 10 goals since the start of this season, including four she scored in Germany, has to juggle a full-time job and her team commitments.
“I work for an NGO [non-governmental Organisation] in Port Elizabeth called United Through Sport because I have bills to pay.
“Not having a salary while you are playing in a top league is difficult, so we have work at the same time.”
Ndesi said she admired the Germans on sport development.
“Over there soccer players are groomed at a very young age with the supervision of parents, which makes it easier for them to grow with the sport.”
The provincial team also went sight seeing in the history rich country, which is also an established manufacturing powerhouse.
“When we got to the airport the host team was waiting to give us a warm welcome to their country. We also got the opportunity to travel and we visited Meyer Werft where they make cruise ships and saw the biggest cruise ship in the world.
“We also went to the hospital where we were informed about patients suffering from brain tumours and other major sicknesses.”
Team Eastern Cape played three games during the visit and lost two. They played against three different teams from different leagues in Germany.
“The second game we played was very tough. Apparently the team plays in a professional league which is more organised and they had four players who played for their national team,” said Ndesi.