Banyana Banyana, the South African women’s national football team, will have two goals when they trot on to the pitch for their match against Equatorial Guinea on Sunday.
They will be hoping to nullify the heartbreaking 2-1 loss to the West Africans in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, during the first leg last month. And they will attempt to gain the respect they believe they deserve for their achievements so far.
Sunday’s game presents Banyana with their last opportunity to qualify for 2008’s women’s Olympic Football in Beijing. The winning team will qualify automatically and the losers will play the intimidating Brazilians for qualification.
So, as Banyana gear up to reverse the score in Pretoria, one wonders if South African soccer lovers will come out in full patriotic support of our women’s national team in the same patriotic fashion that indiscriminately presides over Bafana Bafana matches, despite dismal performances by the men.
Banyana Banyana’s impressive resumé, as the winners of the Cosafa Cup in 2002 and 2006, has seen them maintain a high ranking in Africa.
Banyana are ranked third behind the mighty Nigerian Falcons and formidable Black Queens of Ghana, while our highly favoured men’s team comes trailing in at 12th position in Africa. Banyana midfielder Portia Modise is, once again, for the second year running, the only South African to be nominated in the African Footballer of the Year competition — the men had no representative.
With Banyana’s glorious Cosafa win over Namibia in 2006, played in Zambia, many homebound South Africans were denied the opportunity to ululate around their TV sets in excitement as ”the girls” clinched the cup.
”Well, look, we get relatively good support from the public [when playing at home] because they get to see more goals than they are used to, but we don’t get TV coverage, and that is critical because that assists a team in getting good sponsorships,” says candid team manager Fran Hilton-Smith.
Despite stellar Banyana performances, they seem not to have given the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC), as a national broadcaster, enough motivation to grant them equal coverage.
”For example, on Sunday, the game will not be televised. This is a serious concern for us because it affects whether we receive sponsorship or not,” adds Hilton-Smith.
”’Do you receive TV coverage?’ This is an obvious question that is asked by most prospective sponsors, and Banyana’s answer always guarantees no interest,” comments Hilton-Smith. The lack of corporate sponsorship has ensured that the women’s league remains amateur in name and finance, increasing their frustration.
While Bafana receive many millions of rand from corporate sponsors, the women have to rely on handouts from the football association.
It is cold comfort that the local women’s plight seems to be universal. Arsenal defender Mary Phillip told the Observer last week that the tough English women’s team also receives ”second-class” treatment compared with their male counterparts.
In England, luxury training camps in Dubai or lavish golf outings in Portugal are part of the million-dollar packages the Premier League men receive, while the women’s team slave away in gruelling training camps on minuscule salaries.
Said Phillip: ”You’ve got to give us credit for the way we handle our situation. I don’t think that any male player would do it at this high level. Give those Premier League players our wages, and send them out on a full-time job, as well as training and playing, getting the kids to school, doing the cooking, cleaning, shopping. They would not manage.”
Hilton-Smith agrees. ”Our girls are in the same predicament. They do not receive anywhere near what the boys receive. While they stay in five-star hotels, we simply take what we are given. Sometimes I just wish that our league could be sponsored by the government, just like the Nigerian team,” she says.
In 2004, Sepp Blatter, president of Fifa, publicly revealed the dismissive attitude of football authorities towards professional women players — despite Fifa’s rigorous campaign proclaiming that the ”Future of Football is Feminine”.
Blatter suggested that women should consider wearing more revealing uniforms and skimpier shorts to draw more attention to their game.
Instead of focusing on the obvious need to rally for constructive support by pushing football associations around the world to give equal support to women’s programmes or giving female teams fair monetary prizes, Blatter simply perpetuated the sexualisation of female players.
Banyana Banyana should take pointers from those fastidious boys about how they appear on TV and, horror of horrors, raise hemlines and drop necklines to reveal the supremely sexy sports bras that cling unto cleavages. And, while they are at it, they shouldn’t forget multipurpose waterproof mascara — for both rainy and sweaty days.
Not only will this have SABC sport fighting other broadcasters to televise the matches, it will also probably propel female football players on to the catwalk, like their male counterpart, David Beckham.