Former assistant technical director of the South African Football Association (Safa), Fran Hilton-Smith has expressed her sadness about the slowly fading of women’s football in the country.
The 72-year-old Hilton-Smith was speaking after Banyana’s failure to defend their Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (Wafcon) title in Morocco, which saw Nigeria winning the tournament and clinching their 10th title in 13 competitions since 1998.
The South African senior women’s team side finished the competition in the fourth spot after they were beaten 4-3 by Ghana in the third-position play-offs last Friday.
“It has taken us some years of hard work to lay the foundation of this team. There were glorious moments in our time when we used to have some successful inter-provincial tournaments sponsored by the likes of Absa, Sanlam, Sasol, and Vodacom, which were very pivotal when it came to player selections for our national teams.
“It is very sad because that’s history now, and all we are left with is the women’s leagues, which some of the clubs are not playing in, both the Hollywoodbets and the Sasol League, due to non-payment of what is due to them.
“That will definitely cripple our women’s football and also affect team selection for the national teams,” said the dejected Hilton-Smith.
She added: “Apart from selecting the best players from the competing clubs, we also had the high performance centre (HPC), which served as our back-up plan to produce quality players for our national teams, and for the record, 14 of the players who were part of the Banyana Banyana team that participated in the Fifa World Cup in 2019 and 2023 came from the ranks of HPC, but the intake from there was reduced, and it is at present not a feeder for Banyana Banyana.”
Banyana qualified for two Fifa World Cups; the first was in 2019 in France before they could brace themselves in 2023 during the competition co-hosted by Australia and New Zealand, where they finished in the top 16.
Retirement announcements
With Wafcon done and dusted, it is back to reality. Banyana are on the verge of losing a number of quality players, including head coach Desiree Ellis, who is rumoured to be on her way out.
Star player Jermaine Seoposenwe has officially announced her retirement from the national team duties after the Wafcon.
Adding salt to an injury are the recent retirement announcements by senior players Mpumelelo “Mpuzi” Nyandeni, Noko Matlou, and Janine van Wyk, just to mention a few, while there is no certainty on vice-captain Thembi Kgatlana, who did not pitch up for the competition in Morocco, citing personal reasons as her excuse.
With Sasol having given Safa a mandate to set their house in order before they could reconsider extending their sponsorship, and the uncertainty of Hollywoodbets continuing to sponsor the provincial women’s league, the country’s women’s football future looks bleak.
Hilton-Smith said it will be a sad day to lose most of the skilled players in the national team after years of laying a solid foundation that culminated in producing such quality players.
“While we understand that most of the old players have to retire, we also need a good plan to have a replacement with more quality players to keep the momentum to replace those who will be retiring.
“It is for this reason self-introspection or rebuilding women’s football is very important as soon as possible, more so because next year’s Wafcon is vital as it will serve as Fifa Women’s World Cup qualifying tournament,” said Hilton-Smith
