The Citizen (Gauteng)

Women’s football is not getting a fair shake

- @SbongsKaDo­nga

Ihopped through all the sports channels this week as I was hoping to catch the Banyana Banyana match but was left disappoint­ed as it was not televised.

They were playing their opening game in the Cosafa Women’s Championsh­ip which is essentiall­y a precursor to the Africa Women’s Cup of Nations set for November in Ghana.

I had thought that since Banyana will be representi­ng us in a continenta­l competitio­n, we would be given the privilege – I used privilege on purpose because it seems we don’t have a right to watch them – to watch Desiree Ellis’ team in action be- fore then.

There were no other local games this week as it was still Fifa break but I guess showing us Banyana or the Cosafa Women’s Champs would not be commercial­ly viable for the broadcaste­rs. It is sad because the same broadcaste­rs are the ones who speak highly of equality but when it comes to deeds they fall short.

This is the reason women’s teams are not taken seriously although they have been quite successful over the past few years. We have seen a rise in Banyana stars going to play overseas. More women than men have gone overseas in the past year.

Next year will see the launch

Sibongisen­i Gumbi

of the local women’s national league and hopefully this will give the game some needed clout. We cannot just pretend we follow and like our women’s national teams when they have done well or when a player gets an overseas move. We have to show it every week.

This is why I respect fellow journalist­s who have a passion for women’s sport like my colleague Tshepo Ntsoelengu­e who has fought for women’s football to get prominent coverage and consistent­ly follows and reports on it.

Banyana are one of the favourites to win in Ghana and I would have liked to have seen them before then. This would help me see how the team perform so that when I give opinions when they are in Ghana it is not just a thumb-suck.

This will be detrimenta­l to the growth of the sport in this country. If we could be afforded the right to watch the Cosafa games just before the World Cup, I don’t understand how come the women’s version is deemed unworthy of airtime.

One has to however commend the people handling the social media for Banyana for the updates they have been giving. They have been doing a good job and one hopes they continue.

I guess my point here is that we need to understand that women’s involvemen­t in sport is not just seeing their faces on TV presenting shows. We need to watch them play as well.

I saw a tweet from SuperSport presenter Julia Stuart last month where she was angry that a guy had posted some sort of vote line comparing all the female sports presenters with each other. She took offence to the act – and understand­ably so.

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