Mainland women soccer surely needs more funds

The country’s soccer governing body, Tanzania Football Federation (TFF) is now organising the Mainland Women Premier League.

The league, which has turned out to be the first ever top flight competition for female soccer players at the domestic level, involves 12 outfits from across the country locking horns in round robin format.

Formation of the Mainland women soccer league is so far, not the only success that the sport’s enthusiasts in the country are celebrating.

The senior national women soccer team ‘Twiga Stars’, made the country proud after winning the inaugural Council of East and Central Africa Football Associations (CECAFA) Women Challenge Cup competition in Uganda on September 20 last year.

Twiga Stars made short work of other competitors, including Burundi, Ethiopia, Zanzibar, Rwanda and hosts Uganda, to lay their hands on the top honour.

Efforts to maintain successful promotion of the sport among women in the country, though, is now facing plenty of pitfalls, with failure to access reliable financial support being the biggest of the problems.

With the exception of a domestic television channel which telecast the Mainland women league’s matches live, the tournament has no financial backing which could have ensured teams participate in the event smoothly.

Some of the participating outfits, particularly from upcountry, have gone as far as forfeiting their fixtures because of lack of funds to meet costs for transport and the rest of the team’s needs.

TFF, as it disclosed last year, can only meet travel costs for the coaching panel that is attending the Mainland women league’s games, with a view to selecting players for Twiga Stars and national junior women teams.

We feel domestic soccer enthusiasts have a duty to step up efforts to solicit financial support from firms and well-wishers to facilitate the organisation of the event.

With some of the teams lacking financial support, it is obvious competitiveness will seriously be lacking in the league and the situation will definitely affect the progress of the sport.

There is no doubt that Twiga Stars and national junior women teams’ success depends on, among others, the presence of a strong, competitive Mainland women league, which will produce talented, well-drilled players for the national team.

A weak Mainland women league will, in contrast, do little to ensure Twiga Stars and national junior women teams get good players that will help the outfits excel in international assignments.

Firms should feel obliged to play a key role in promotion of soccer among women in the country by pouring support on the Mainland women league.

We believe that the Mainland women league has great potential to promote the firms’ products the same way as the men’s Mainland Premier League does.

This is precisely why we see no reason whatsoever for the women league to be accorded as much financial and general support as has always be directed to men’s premier league. It should be anathema to continue operating led by our “traditional gender-based” discrimination.