‘Pull women’s football along’

Male football clubs have been urged to offer support to women's football to enable their game  thrive in Africa, just as it is progressing in the western world.

According to Emy Caseletti, a FIFA Instructor in Administration for women's football, that is the surest way for women's football to progress, especially considering the fact that funds are virtually non-existent in the women's game on the continent.

Ms Caseletti, also the wife of African legend and President of the Zambia Football Association, Kalusha Bwalya, gave the advice when she facilitated a one-week course for female football administrators at the Ghanaian Centre for Soccer Excellence at Prampram.

The course, organised by the Women's League Board (WLB), in conjunction with the Technical Directorate of the Ghana Football Association (GFA), was jointly sponsored by the FA and FIFA.

The participants were drawn from the 12 National Women League (NWL) representatives from the Regional Women's Football Committees, as well as other stakeholders in the women's game, who were taken through topics  such as Strategic Planning, Marketing and Sponsorship, Laws of the Game and FIFA connect, a new biometric registration of players to build up database.

Ms Caseletti said FIFA  wished  to see Africa replicating Europe’s structures  where men's clubs also owed female clubs that play competitive matches like Arsenal Ladies, Man City Ladies, Chelsea Ladies and Dortmund Ladies, among others  .

She,  therefore, advised  the FAs to lead the way by carrying the women’s teams along the successful national teams.

According to Ms Caseletti, it was also important for  the  various male clubs  to make their structures and other resources available to the female clubs to accelerate their developments.

“The clubs must try to adopt the female teams so that the challenges the female clubs face could be reduced, and in the process, help in the steady and rapid development of the game ,which attracts as much passion as the men’s.” she noted

Ms Caseletti also urged football administrators to try to strike a balance between resource and talent, saying they go  hand-in-hand.

"The abundance of talent without resource, makes it difficult for teams to succeed, and in the same way, the availability of resources without talent and skill makes it meaningless, so at any given time, there should be a balance. But of course,resources are scarce in Africa, and the women's clubs can not do it on their own. They need the men's clubs to fully support,"she  explained.

In response, Ms Leanier Addy, an Executive Committee member of the GFA and the chairperson of  WLB on behalf of the FA, assured to consider the recommendations in a pragmatic  way to enhance the development of women soccer in Ghana.