Academy to launch girls’ football league

Women’s football is rapidly on the rise in the world and while administrators in this country were reluctant to give women a professional setting in the past, it’s slowly gaining momentum in South Africa.

It took several Banyana Banyana stalwarts’ harsh words for the South African Football Association (SAFA) to realise its failure to professionalise the women’s game.

The association has since launched the Hollywoodbets Women’s League and this has encouraged more girls to play the game they love.

Encouraged by the rising number of girls in their ranks, The Superstar Academy, in partnership with Astroplex, is launching the Girls’ School League, which will be played at Astroplex.

“We found out that there is a desperate need for more girls to play soccer,” said the academy’s founder and director, Shan Naidoo.

The first of its kind in the Boksburg and Benoni areas, the league will give the girls an opportunity to play on their terms without the judgement, often disguised as football banter, from their opposite gender.

“When we did the Woodlands Football Club, we had a few girls but they played with boys. These girls wanted to play with other girls. However, it was a challenge to start or even get a group of girls together,” Naidoo added.

The lack of grassroots football development for women in the country was also another factor for Naidoo and his partners.

“There is no focus on girls. If you look at most clubs right now, there’s no grassroots football for women. I think the only real girls’ academy is JVW Girls Academy (run by Banyana Banyana captain Janine van Wyk).

“But the JVW Girls Academy only focuses on girls from age 13 upwards. So there’s no grassroots football at the moment, and we saw that as an opportunity.”

According to Naidoo, this is slowly gaining traction. However, for this programme to succeed, they have to work with schools where the development and excitement for women’s soccer are strong.

“We are going to use Woodlands International College for our testing phase to start some girls’ teams.
“We and Astroplex are trying to start some girls’ teams within the Boksburg and Benoni areas – where we can run a league at Astroplex to play on Friday afternoons for juniors and seniors. What’s nice about Astroplex is that you don’t need the full complement of your team to play. You can always play a five- or six-a-side.”

Naidoo pointed out they won’t push the girls hard until they are tactically and technically astute.

“We want to start this as a social league, but the idea is to pull talent. We will link this with the academy to help with the development and slowly nurture these girls into professional footballers and, hopefully, place them internationally because there’s a huge need for female footballers – especially in the USA where there’s a big focus on women’s soccer.”

He lamented the lack of female coaches as a challenge and urged those interested to come forward because the girls are reluctant to work with guys.

“The biggest challenge at the moment is to get female coaches. We have been searching but they are scarce. A lot of these girls don’t want to train with the guys, so female coaches will help us.” The league will be launched in February.

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