09 Feb 2020

Coordinator of women’s football at Botswana Football Association, Tsoseletso Magang has encouraged young girls to understand the reason behind becoming athletes if they are to last in the game.

She echoed the sentiments during the official launch of the Jacaranda Women’s Football League by the Francistown Regional Football Association (FRAFA) on February 8.

She said perseverance was important as it was a key ingredient in any athlete’s life. Magang said women footballers should understand that while they started out as athletes, they needed to grow in all aspects of the game so that in future they could take up leadership roles in administrative structures of the game.

She applauded them for choosing to engage in sports while some of their age mates were out doing undesirable things which had the potential to destroy their future.

“As an athlete, you should know where you want to go in life, have a goal and work around it if you want to develop as a person,” said Magang.

She also encouraged female football players not to underestimate some of the lessons they relied on in the field of play such as teamwork and handling pressure.

 “These skills help to shape and build leadership skills and will come handy when you join sports administration,” she said.

On other issues, she encouraged them to ensure that they have fun in playing football if they wanted to go a long way.

 Football, she noted, taught sisterhood and would bequeath them with friends for life.

 Magang thanked Jacaranda Primary School for sponsoring the league to the tune of P40 000, noting that they expected to see the sponsorship growing in the coming years.

As a demonstration of their commitment towards developing women’s football, Magang explained that they had developed a strategic plan with the assistance of FIFA. She was also of the opinion that women’s football could not be developed without resources. However, she reiterated the fact that resources also required skilled people to manage them.

“We also need to build the capacity of our structures to take care of the limited resources. Women’s football needs to benchmark from the men’s game as it has been around for many years,” she added.  She also called on men to give women football officials such as referees a chance to develop and build their confidence by exposing them through officiating in their games.

“It is only through this that they can gain the necessary experience to develop the women’s game,” she said.

Giving an overview of women’s football in the FRAFA region, the vice chairperson of the women’s wing, Motlalepula Bakani explained that the league started in 2012 with one team, named Reteng Banyana.

She highlighted that they used to play in tournaments around the country as they had no league by then. She noted that the league was currently made up of 10 teams. However, she chronicled challenges that she said needed to be ironed out for the league to run smoothly.

She also heaped praise on Jacaranda for being their first sponsor and urged the business community to come on board to develop women’s football.

One of their challenges, Bakani explained, was lack of resources such as playing kits and administration finance.

Furthermore, she said that most of the football grounds they used were not in a good condition.

 “We also do not have qualified referees in the league which sometimes forces us to engage unqualified personnel which demoralises players,” she highlighted. Another major concern, she asserted, was the movement of players amongst teams without proper communication.

She encouraged girls to take football seriously as it had the potential to change their lives for the better.

This, she noted, was evidenced by the fact that some Batswana women footballers were now studying and playing football in the United States of America.

 For his part, a representative of Jacaranda Primary School, Ocharukunnil Johnson said they decided to sponsor the women’s football league as a way of ploughing back to the community.

 “As a school we are committed to the growth of women sports in Botswana. We promise to extend this support as much as we can, resources permitting, in future,” he said. ENDS