Women Football Players Call For Equal Opportunities
The Footballers Union of Botswana (FUB) is currently running an online campaign aimed at sensitizing different stakeholders about the plight of women football in the country. The campaign seeks to lay a foundation for women
football players to receive the same treatment and opportunities like their male counterparts
The Footballers Union of Botswana (FUB) is currently running an online campaign aimed at sensitizing different stakeholders about the plight of women football in the country. The campaign seeks to lay a foundation for women football players to receive the same treatment and opportunities like their male counterparts.
“The campaign cuts across everyone involved in the game including media, sponsors and supporters. Our plea is that women’s football should receive the same amount of media coverage as their male counterparts, for example. They should be treated and viewed as equal to other players of a different gender in every aspect,”FUB secretary general, Kgosana Masaseng said. The campaign comes at a time when there have been reports in the past of Women’s national team players complaining about their welfare when on national duty.
Although some of their complaints have reportedly been addressed, there is still a pending issue of allowances for national team players. At the moment, the Women’s national team players get an allowances of P50 each per day when in camp while their male counterparts get P100. The players have since taken an initiative to drive the seven-day campaign so as to sensitize all stakeholders about the challenges they face.
Masaseng further said the players have since been giving them positive feedback since the campaign started last week. He said the players state that the attitude seems to be changing across all the stakeholders and hope that eventually women’s football will receive the same treatment as men’s football.
Masaseng also said a decision was made in 2015 by the International Federation of Professional Footballers (FIFPro) to absorb women’s football players into structures. He said there is a notion that local women football players are not professional and cannot be represented by FUB, but explained that it is wrong. “They are our members just like their male counterparts,” he said.
FUB head of women football who is also the women’s senior national team captain, Bonang Otlhagile, said the current campaign is aimed at laying a foundation for future generations. “Some of us are about to retire, but before we do, we would like to address issues that have been affecting the growth of the game. Women’s football cannot follow in the footsteps of the men’s game nor be positioned as its little sister,” she said.