08 Aug 2019

Slovensky Futbalovy Zvaz (SFZ) technical director is confident that Botswana senior women’s national football team will immensely benefit from the two-week training camp in Slovakia.

In an interview, Štefan Tarkovič said mutual cooperation between Botswana Football Association (BFA) and SFZ would also help Botswana to ‘tick boxes’ in developing women’s football.

Nevertheless, he said there was need for BFA to resuscitate the women’s football league, saying it would allow the technical department to scout and choose the best players for the national team.

Moving forward, he said BFA should also consider setting up robust women’s league structures, adding without a regular league, it would be difficult to build a strong national team.

Women football teams, he said were an integral part of every association and therefore should be given all the resources and adequate support.

Tarkovič, who is also former Slovakia national team assistant manager, said internships and cooperations from other federations would also benefit Botswana in their quest to improve and develop women’s football.

“For Botswana to reap the good fruits of women football, the association should to go back to basics like grassroots development,” he said.

He however said even though Slovakia was not as strong as countries like Germany, Norway and USA, his association was trying hard to develop and improve their women’s football and thus had put regulations in place for in the academies in their country.

“We have made it clear to the academies that they need to have two teams of women’s football, including the under 15 team,” he said.

From the academies, Tarkovič said players would then be further developed and incorporated to national teams.

“We have four women national teams, under 15, 17, 19 and senior team and our national team first and second are active. We also have a junior league played by under 19s,” he said.

Tarkovič, said their league was divided into two regions of east and west, adding junior leagues were played in 13 academies.

Again, he said Slovakia had four regions, which had their own associations, but were all monitored by SFZ as the country’s football governing body.

Tarkovič, however said their women’s teams also struggled to get sponsorships as compared to men’s teams.

“But there are other cosmetics companies that are helpful in sponsoring our different women’s football clubs. 

The association also helps since we have a budget for women’s football. The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) supports all associations with funding,” he said.

He however said for the associations to benefit from UEFA funding, they had to have women football structures in place.

“So if you do not have junior teams they can cut your budget with 20 per cent. Our budget for our women’s teams is around 700 000 Euros (about P8.5 million),” he said. Ends