09 Feb 2023

It will be a historic moment in the Southern Region Football Association (SOFA) when it’s first ever women’s division one league startsFebruary 11 in Jwaneng.

The region has seven women’s teams. 

Three of the teams, Zodiac Collabo Girls, Bonto FC and Extension Gunners Ladies are from Lobatse. 

Gangwaketse United and Kanye Swallows represent Kanye while the other teams are Jwaneng Galaxy and Taipei Babes.

SOFA executive committee chairperson, Matthews Mmono, said he was delighted that the region had finally managed to have a women’s football league.

Speaking recently during a meeting aimed at sensitising stakeholders about the league in Lobatse, Mmono said each weekend fixtures would be played in a ‘football bonanza’ arrangement, where games would be held in one town or village and move to the next place the following weekend. He said the opening weekend fixtures would be played in Jwaneng.

“In that way, we will be able to enjoy and love our regional football. All stakeholders around will be invited to come and showcase what they have. We want to build lifelong partnerships,” he said.

Mmono said the objective of his committee was to accelerate growth of women and youth football in the region. He said their long term objective was to have all teams affiliated to the SOFA region establishing women and youth development teams. “We want players to be developed from a young age and given all football skills,” he said.

Mmono said Meat Girls was the last women’s football team from the SOFA region to participate in an official league. He said that was eight years ago when it played under the ambit of the women’s national league. The women’s national league was later replaced by women’s regional league.

SOFA executive committee additional member, Mpheme Mmolai, said the region would promote women’s league by working closely with the community and bringing stakeholders to the matches.

“Our strategic approach is to have many engagements with stakeholders to come to our games and provide their services to the community. Coming together with them will help us achieve our objective of empowering the girl child not only in sports, but in other aspects of life,” she said.

She said Debswana had committed to sponsor the league. She said details of the sponsorship would be revealed at the launch of the league in Jwaneng today.

The opening weekend fixtures on Saturday will see a heavy weight clash between Jwaneng Galaxy and Zodiac Collabo Girls played at Galaxy Stadium at 9am. Bonto FC will square off with Gunners ladies at 4pm at Galaxy Stadium, while Taipei Babes will lock horns with Kanye Swallows at Jwaneng Rugby Stadium at 4pm. Ends