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Banyana Banyana will play in the Cosafa Women’s Championship with covered-up Nike kits because the South African Football Association’s new technical sponsor hasn’t accommodated women.
The dream that Banyana Banyana’s debut appearance in the Fifa Women’s World Cup would lead to them and women’s football in South Africa being afforded the respect they deserve is slowly dissipating.
While the South African Football Association (Safa) did take steps in the right direction after the World Cup by introducing a more competitive league for women, Banyana and women’s football continue to receive the short end of the stick from the association.
The senior national women’s side will go into the Cosafa Women’s Championship in Port Elizabeth without having properly prepared, for example – having last played in March against Lesotho in a friendly match. While other countries like Zambia and the Mountain Kingdom used the October Fifa international week to prepare for the Southern Africa competition, Safa were mum about preparatory plans for both the defending champions and the national Under-17 women’s side (Bantwana).
The launch and unveiling of Safa’s technical sponsor, Le Coq Sportif, excluded women’s wear. The French apparel manufacturer’s South African website strictly named the kit as Bafana Bafana’s. The series of embarrassing posts unveiling the kit were upstaged by the sight of the Bafana technical team members and reserve players wearing Nike rain jackets in the friendly against Zambia. The old sponsor’s logo was taped over. The French manufacturer hadn’t provided Safa with rain jackets.
The events continued to be more disappointing as Banyana and Bantwana players, who had assembled at Safa’s Fun Valley Technical Centre for their different Cosafa tournaments, were handed the previous sponsor’s garb for the duration of the camp. The women’s sides don’t have any merchandise from the new technical sponsor.
This article was initially published at NewFrame
