I have been following women’s football in Africa for almost 15 years. And I’m sad to say that there has been little progress in supporting or promoting it in that time. The complaints are familiar now: lack of representation, lack of infrastructure, poor wages and underfunding are among the myriad failings that have held back the women’s game.
This sorry state of affairs is continent-wide. Yet talent abounds: four-time African Women’s Footballer of the Year and Barcelona player Asisat Oshoala from Nigeria and Ghana striker Evelyn Badu, who plays for Norwegian club Avaldsnes IL and was named 2022 Young Player of the Year and Interclub player of the year by the Confederation of African Football (CAF), are among the best. But these stars succeeded against the odds. Where is the grassroots investment to ensure the girls of today have open opportunities instead of having to sneak out of their homes to play the game they love? It shouldn’t all be left to the players themselves to nurture future stars, as Oshoala is doing through her Lagos-based academy, or former Super Falcons player Ayisat Yusuf-Aromire with her SheFootball Initiative.
It’s not just underfunding at entry level. For years, the women’s league in Ghana went without a major sponsor, only to be bailed out this year by a brewery company. When the women’s league winners in Ghana qualified for the inaugural CAF Women’s Champions League in Ivory Coast in 2021, it took the intervention of the vice-president of Ghana and some private individuals to come to their aid with donations before they could make the tournament.
Time and again, female players have to fight not just for decent pay, but to be paid at all. In 2016, members of Ghana’s national senior women’s team, the Black Queens, staged a protest at the country’s sports ministry over unpaid bonuses. The players, who placed third in the Women’s Africa Nations Cup that same year, were also protesting over outstanding pay from their participation in the African Games the previous year. It was a shameful spectacle. The bonuses were eventually paid in 2020.
At the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco in July, Nigeria’s women’s team, the Super Falcons, boycotted training in protest over outstanding pay. It was not the first time they have acted over late payments. In 2019, Nigerian players refused to leave their hotel during the Women’s World Cup in France until they were paid the bonuses they were owed.
Recent efforts by some countries such as Senegal and Morocco, as well as by CAF, to invest in the women’s game are welcome developments. But much more could be done to develop talent, commercial opportunities and infrastructure.
But Africa is not alone in failure to address inequalities in sport. World Cup host Qatar is still playing catch-up when it comes to women’s football. Its national women’s team is unranked by Fifa, and while opportunities for girls to play are improving, they remain limited.
But there have also been reasons to celebrate: six female referees, including Salima Mukansanga of Rwanda and Yoshimi Yamashita from Japan, have made history during this tournament as the first women to officiate at a World Cup.
Behind the scenes, women such as Sarah Cheadle, the only female director on the World Cup production team, are an inspiration. I’ve found it encouraging to see an increase in the number of female sports journalists, commentators and administrators compared with previous World Cups.
I have been fortunate to work at football tournaments and have often left excited at the potential for African female sports journalists. Qatar is another opportunity to shape our careers. With a bigger platform we can add our voices to calls for better support for women’s football. I am also mindful that I need to ensure that the door stays open for others to follow.
The torch we hold is not for ourselves but for all.
