Motaung excited by new CAF role
KAIZER Chiefs marketing and commercial director Jessica Motaung says her appointment to the Confederation of African Football (CAF) “is a win-win situation” for the club and the mother body of African football.
Yesterday, Chiefs announced that Motaung had been appointed by CAF to be part of the organising committee for women’s football for the next two years.
“As we know, women’s football is growing internationally. We’ve seen record numbers in events,” Motaung said during the announcement at the club’s headquarters.
“We’ve seen the commitments by Fifa and CAF to make sure that they’ve set up strategy communities that are not just looking at the development of the game, but also the commercialisation of the game. And that’s very important.
“I look forward to leveraging the resources around us, but most importantly, I think the commercialisation of the space is something I can bring to the party. I look forward to the women’s Afcon, which is happening in July,” she added.
Since being established 52 years ago, Chiefs have had a reputation of not taking African football seriously – given that they are yet to rule the continent, unlike rivals Orlando Pirates and Mamelodi Sundowns, who ascended the throne of Africa in 1995 and 2016 respectively.
Chiefs came close to their maiden continental crown last term after reaching the CAF Champions League final, but lost out to the African Club of the Century, Al Ahly.
However, Chiefs supporters could see that change now that Motaung will have roles at Amakhosi and CAF.
“Our ambitions in Africa have always been very clear (that we wanted to dominate). I just think that people were not aware of that or misinterpreted that,” Motaung said.
“We are very excited with how the team performed last season and we wanted to win.
“But it (reaching the final) gave us a foundation, and it’s something that we focused on.
“The club always supports the initiatives that its employees and administrators are involved in. I am looking forward to the benefits of that. Also, I think the work that I do on the continent will also enhance some of the stuff for the club, and there will be a lot of learning from that as well.
“It’s a win-win situation.”
With Motaung set to work in a programme that caters for women’s football, pressure has mounted on Chiefs to form a ladies team that will compete in either the Sasol League or Hollywoodbets Super League after CAF told clubs that in order to play continental football, they’d have to establish one in the near future.
With Chiefs still mathematically in the race to qualify for African football next season, Motaung said that “by the end of the season or the beginning of the new season, we’ll definitely have announcements” on forming a women’s team.