- Dr Desiree Ellis:
“It’s a sad day for South African women’s football…”
- Tim Sukazi:
“The situation is catching up with us as South Africa – Sundowns Ladies are not challenged because the playing fields are not level.”
- Nthabeleng Modiko:
“Maybe it’s a blessing in disguise for South African football to reboot and come back stronger.”
- Sizwe Sibiya:
“It’s painful not to have a South African team there, but if you look at it differently it means the COSAFA region is capable of producing other representatives.”
- Menzi Ngcobo:
“This means there is an improvement of the game in the region, but on the other hand it’s not good for South African football.”
Mamelodi Sundowns Ladies early exit in the recently ended CAF Women’s Champions League COSAFA qualifiers has sent shockwaves around women’s football in the Southern tip of the continent, more so in South Africa with many looking all over for answers as to what transpired.
For the first time in the history of the five-year old TotalEnergies CAF Women’s Champions League, there will be no Sundowns Ladies team and no South African representation.
Several football officials have weighed in on the matter – perhaps an indication of the seriousness of the lack of participation in the continental finals.
Sundowns Ladies won the inaugural competition in 2021 and repeated the feat two years later – in between (2022) they were thrashed 4-0 by AS FAR in the final. TP Mazembe of the DR Congo are the current title holders after lifting the trophy in 2024 – while the Brazilians failed to get out of the group last year, perhaps a sign that things things to come, as we bear witness now.
In the regional COSAFA qualifiers the South Africans won the 2021 and 2023 editions, with Zambia’s Green Buffaloes claiming gold in 2022 after defeating the same Sundowns Ladies. Last year the University of the Western Cape (UWC) became the first university team to participate in, and win the competition, securing a ticket to the prestigious CAF Women’s Champions League, rewriting the history books in the process.
So, from two teams in the 2024 CAF Women’s Champions League for South Africa to zero just a year later has left many women’s football lovers with more questions than answers – especially for a country that is believed to have most if not all the resources.
Lack of club participation at continental level for South Africa means they miss out on a chance to attempt for a spot in the new global women’s football tournament launched by the world football governing body in March this year, the FIFA Women’s Champions Cup, which kicks off in 2026.
Following Sundowns Ladies’ failure to win the COSAFA qualifiers, CentreCircle.online spoke to several football officials and this is what they had to say.
Dr Desiree Ellis – Banyana Banyana Head Coach:
I think it’s a sad day for South African football… we’ve always had a representative at the CAF Champions League. Last year we had Mamelodi Sundowns Ladies and the University of the Western Cape (UWC) and Sundowns Ladies not getting to the upcoming finals means there’s a lot of work to be done. It also shows, as we’ve seen at the CAF Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (WAFCON) how countries, and in this case, teams, are starting to step up – and I think we also need to start stepping up or we’re going to get left behind. Last year Gaborone United Ladies from Botswana got to the final against UWC and lost on penalties, they went back, worked hard and this time around they won it on penalties. But you also see how all the other teams in different countries are stepping up – you look at Green Buffaloes who always represented Zambia, now there’s a new team in Zesco Ndola Girls, we had a new team this year from Malawi (Ntopwa FC) coming to the playoffs. You go across to West Africa at WAFU B, you have a new team from Nigeria, you have a new team from Ghana, so teams are stepping up. Coming back to Sundowns Ladies, it’s sad because there’s no continental competition which gives some international experience to those players that are not in the national team. I also think that the competition is getting bigger and better, and clubs are putting in a lot more work, and I am not saying that Sundowns Ladies haven’t put in work, just that clubs have put in a lot more work knowing that there’s bigger competitions deriving out of this regional participation – we now know about the new FIFA Women’s Champions Cup starting next year as well as FIFA Women’s Club World Cup in 2028. There is also talk that WAFCON will be increased to 16 teams from 12, also there could be a WAFCON for the U17 and U20 National Teams, so there’s more and more competitions, which require that clubs be actively participating in regional and continental competition to have that edge above the others. As South Africa we’ve got to do better, we’ve got to make sure that we get our clubs there, and good luck to those teams that are going there later this year. Our clubs in South Africa have got to do a lot more work to make sure that the league (Hollywoodbets Super League) is competitive, to push whoever is winning the title to make sure that they go there (to regional and continental competitions) and they present us well. But it’s a sad day for Mamelodi Sundowns Ladies, it’s a sad day for our football. The Sundowns Ladies team has been one of the teams that has represented us the most – they’ve been to every tournament since inception, have won it two times and been to three finals – so for them not being there, is a really sad day for South African football.
Tim Sukazi – Chairman: TS Galaxy
The situation is catching up with us as South Africa, we’ve got our sister countries in Africa that are increasing their game, they’re investing in the game financially – Morocco is an example that comes to mind, Algeria is another one and these countries are about to surpass us. The reason is obvious to me, without corporate support in the woman’s game there’s nothing that can happen because football by its very nature is pretty much reliant on the financial resources. So, we want corporate to come and buy in and support the game. We have clubs here in the league that are completely out of resources, they struggle for transport they’re struggling for food, yet they are committed to the game, they cannot pay salaries or stipends to the players and that has got an effect ultimately in the entire game. How? Sundowns Ladies are very well resourced, but they’re not challenged and eventually they are caught up at a certain level and you find their play doesn’t even meet the COSAFA standards. You don’t want a Sundowns Ladies with all kinds of resources to be eliminated at the qualification stage of the CAF Women’s Champions League – No!
The second problem is that there’s no buy in from the men’s side of the game, so you want a woman’s league, or I am advocating for the log table of our women’s league that resembles exactly the men’s professional log table, the Betway Premiership. You want all clubs to participate because one club from the top end of the men’s game makes a huge difference – you’ll be guaranteed of the professionalization of at least one more club.. So, currently it’s TS Galaxy and Sundowns, it’s not enough, there are 16 teams in the Betway Premiership. If 10 or so Betway Premiership teams are presented in the women’s game, then at least 10 women’s teams will be professionalized, which will see the rise in the standards and then whoever becomes the champion in the women’s game would have been challenged, and this will further make them good enough to sustain themselves and not just compete but also represent the country properly in the Cosafa qualification stage or even in the CAF Women Champions League itself. You want to see a South African club to lift the CAF Women’s Champions League trophy. Our men’s teams do very well on the continent, imagine if we had that in the women’s game. I am attributing Sundowns Ladies’ recent failure to lack of financial resources by other teams in the league and therefore can’t compete on an equal footing against the Sundowns Ladies who sometimes win by big margins, and also to lack of buy in from men’s teams who don’t have women’s structures.
Nthabeleng Modiko – University of Johannesburg Head Coach:
Maybe it’s a blessing in disguise, I know everybody will be upset about it, but maybe it is a blessing in disguise so that the entire South African football system can be able to just reboot and we’ll be able to better prepare for the next one. I think not having Sundowns Ladies there, not having a UWC there is sad because we know how amazing this tournament as well as the CAF Women’s Champions League are for us. They boost our game and it also afford us an opportunity to see better what’s out there so we can be able to test ourselves against it. But I will repeat, I think it’s a blessing in disguise, let’s all just reboot and focus on us and then we’ll come back stronger.
Sizwe Sibiya – TS Galaxy Queens Head Coach:
It’s very painful!
I was watching the game as one of our own lost to Zesco Ndola Girls, it was painful to watch. But what mostly bothered me was the remarks of how people reacted as if they are tired of always seeing Sundowns Ladies move forward, let’s show a spirit of sportsmanship and treat each other with respect. Having said that, let’s look at the outcome from a different perspective and say for the COSAFA region to have someone else that tells you that we are capable as the southern region that anyone can represent the region as a whole, let’s look at it that way instead of saying Sundown Ladies or South Africa is not there – after all, Sundowns Ladies have two CAF Women’s Champions League titles. If Gaborone United Ladies of Botswana goes all the way to the final of the CAF Women’s Champions League, what does it say about other regions? That should then tell you a big story that as a region we are improving, we are getting better and better.
Menzi Ngcobo – Senior Sponsorship Coordinator at Hollywoodbets
Of course it does affect South African football in many ways, but it also depends on which side of the fence you are standing. The one perspective is that it obviously shows that there is an improvement of the game within the region, the COSAFA region, which is a positive. In 2022 Sundowns Ladies lost against Green Buffaloes from Zambia, and this year they struggled against Zesco Ndola Girls from Zambia – it means these teams are getting better but the net effect is that impacts Banyana Banyana, because it decreases the level of international football, it decreases the amount of international football that these players can be exposed to at club level. It also decreases the quality of football for a side that, let’s be honest, walks through the local league. Maybe if the local teams can match what the likes of Zesco Ndola Girls are doing, they can be able to dethrone Sundowns Ladies, and this in turn could maybe reinvigorate Sundowns Ladies to come back bigger and stronger on the one hand, but on the other, to also give an opportunity to the other clubs to challenge for the throne, as it were. But if truth be told, it’s obviously not good – we have just come back from having UWC and Sundowns Ladies both in the CAF Champions League and UWC winning the COSAFA, to having no team at all. This is also indicative of the results that we’ve had on the continent from a national team perspective, Banyana Banyana getting knocked out at the WAFCON 2024, prematurely I think. But lack of participation a continental club level has a domino effect on the game overall and it could serve as a wake-up call for the teams that are involved in the league to recheck and rethink what they do.
By Matlhomola Morake
