Sasol Women’s League set to kick off without the powerhouse of women’s football

The new season of Gauteng Sasol Women’s League is set to kick-off on 23 March without one of the national powerhouses of women’s football, Mamelodi Sundowns Ladies, who have since been promoted to the newly formed National Women’s League.

The Brazilian Ladies received their promotion by virtue of the club’s men’s team plying their trade in the Premier Soccer League’s Absa Premiership. The other team that gained automatic promotion was Free State’s Bloemfontein Celtic Ladies.

Besides the promotion of Masandawana Ladies, two other teams from Gauteng that made it into the new national league are the Tshwane University of Technology Ladies, better known as TUT Ladies and the University of Johannesburg (UJ) Ladies.

TUT Ladies qualified by virtue of being the Gauteng champions of the Sasol Women’s League while UJ Ladies was invited because the won the Varsity Cup. Wits Ladies could not secure automatic qualification as they are a different entity altogether from Bidvest Wits in the Absa Premiership.

Meanwhile, Alexandra’s Bluebirds Ladies who survived relegation from the Sasol Women’s League by the skin of their teeth after one of their most disastrous showings in the league since promotion four seasons ago, is gearing itself up for another stint in the hope of qualifying for the national league the following season.

Bluebirds play their first game of the new season on 24 March at the Alexandra Stadium against newly promoted Wits Ladies while their Northrand counterparts, Croesus Ladies, who missed promotion by a whisker, will open their campaign on 23 March at home against Vaal University of Technology Ladies.

Birds coach Malvin Khumalo said they decided to promote their junior team en masse and that they would form the bulk of the current squad. Players like Deveney Rhoda and stylish Tshwarelo Digauta and others have since left the club in search of pastures green.

“The team has enough quality and depth to compete much better than last season and they have been hard at training for most of the off season and we’re confident of a much better than in the previous season,” Khumalo said.

Croesus team manager Maria Athanassouli said the team was ready for the new season though they had lost one of their reliable wingers, Mary Ntsweng who wanted to join a team in the newly formed National Women’s League.

Athanassouli said a few players from Palace Super Falcons had joined them to bolster their squad and “we’re hopeful of a good season yet again, may be much better than the previous”. She also indicated the club had since parted ways with its long-standing coach Daniel Tshidi.

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