Uganda: Cecafa Aim to Promote Women's Football | 31.08.2016
FUFA president Moses Magogo stressed his delight, that Cecafa, the regional football governing body had agreed to have the Cecafa women's football championship here between September 11 and 20.
While addressing the media during the tournament launch at FUFA house, Mengo on Monday, Magogo pointed out that as a nation, Uganda's women were going to add invaluable experience to their game.
Magogo said that this tournament can boost the women's game so that with time, in future, Uganda can compete with the continent and the world's best women's football teams. This is a dream harboured by a number of women involved in the game today, although it is still a long way to realizing it.
Just over a month ago, Uganda visited Kenya for a friendly. They lost 0-4, which puts them under extra pressure to improve for the nation's pride. While Uganda will be expected to win this championship, their recent game shows how difficult that will be.
And it goes back to the fact that the women's game has lagged behind because of years of under-funding. This year is the second year the national women's football league has run, a sign of FUFA's determination to grow it.
Nicholas Musonye, the Cecafa General Secretary, who was present for the launch could not thank FUFA enough for the passion they are showing in popularizing women's football. But he also commended FUFA for accepting to host this tournament at short notice before announcing the draws.
Group 'A' will have Uganda, Kenya, Burundi and Zanzibar while Group 'B' has Ethiopia, Tanzania and Rwanda. The tournament will be played at the FUFA technical centre in Njeru, Jinja.
Record numbers as Girls' Football Week continues to grow | 14.09.2016
This year’s second FA Girls’ Football Week has exceeded target registration numbers a month ahead of the event.
31,126 girls and women have signed up to play football as part of the week – 9,000 more than the original target of 22,000.
So far, 570 organisations will run sessions throughout the week, which takes place from 10-16 October.
In April more than 52,000 girls took part in the first week’s activities in sessions delivered in schools, clubs, community groups and wider organisations across the country, double the original target of participants.
Next month additional focus will be on encouraging higher and further education establishments to put on female-specific sessions at the start of their academic years.
Organisations can still register via FAGirlsFootballWeek.com, where they will be able to access a range of materials including session plans and ideas and promotional tools.
The weeks are being delivered in partnership with the Independent Schools FA, English Schools FA, Association of Colleges Sport, British Universities and Colleges Sport, the Premier League and the English Football League.
Kelly Simmons, FA director of football participation and development, said: “These figures demonstrate just how much appetite there is to get more women and girls playing football.
“With a month to go, we’re confident that we can get even more organisations and academic institutions signed up to take part and hopefully continue to run football sessions throughout the rest of the year.”
Football is the largest female team sport in England with more than 2.89m players. There are more than 5,900 women’s and girls’ teams playing affiliated club football.
Going Out: New edition of Dubai Women’s Football League set to get underway | 14.09.2016
With off-season now over, it’s time to brush off the dust on your boots and showcase your abilities in the new edition of the Dubai Women’s Football Association league.
Kicking off on October 4, entry numbers have been encouraging for the seven-a-side league format, to be played at Jebel Ali Shooting Club, but you can still join them with registration closing on September 27.
Now in its sixth edition, the event has gone from strength to strength and this season is set to be another huge success.
“We have been running the league for a couple of years and during that time, it has continued to grow and get better year by year,” said Kane Cowburn, head coach of It’s Just Football, which is running the league.
“At first, it started off low in the standard but now it is attracting players from all backgrounds.
“It really has become popular and we’ve had players who have played professionally and the league is now played in a good standard across the board.”
LEAGUE DETAILS
What: Dubai Women’s Football Association league
Where: Jebel Ali Shooting Club, Dubai
When: From October 4, 19:30 to 21:30
Contact: For registration or more information, visit [email protected]
Teams will play one 50-minute match every Tuesday between 19:30 and 21:30 on a home and away basis.
The top side at the end of the campaign will be crowned champions.
Besides the winning trophy, there’s plenty to play for with player-of-the-season, golden glove and top-scorer accolades up for grabs.
Whether you’re a beginner or an advanced-level player, experience does not matter.
“It’s open for all abilities,” said Cowburn. “We had players who were playing competitively last year and not only for the competition, but for the social aspect as well. It’s a chance to get together, enjoy themselves and play football.”
Even if you don’t have a team, you’re still welcome to join in a practice match held before the season.
“This is a great chance to be selected for a team for those who cannot form a side of their own,” said Cowburn.
“We are also looking to expand this league and it’s a fantastic chance for females to continue their careers as footballers in what will be a competitive environment. Those who still have a love for the game, can come along, make some new friends and play in a safe environment.”
At the Home of FIFA in Zurich this week, 34 female leaders, including six from the FIFA administration, continued their leadership journey.
The FIFA Female Leadership Development Programme, delivered with THNK (the School of Creative Leadership) was launched in 2015. The aim of the FIFA Women’s Football Development Department, was to identify, support and develop strong female leaders in football, globally.
The programme runs over nine months, including three group workshops (two of which are held in Zurich at FIFA’s headquarters) and takes participants through extensive fieldwork. A mentor and a leadership coach support the participants along the way, with the three key pillars of learning: Leading self; Leading others; Leading the organisation.
The second module of the second edition (2016/2017) of the FIFA Female Leadership Development Programme concluded this week. It included sessions on Leadership Assessment, workshops focused on Marketing, Events, Competitions, and Corporate Engagement and Strategic Partnerships, and featured three individual sessions with FIFA Management.
FIFA President Gianni Infantino, FIFA Secretary General Fatma Samoura, and FIFA Deputy Secretary General Zvonimir Boban each visited the group, sharing their own leadership experiences with the participants, as well as taking part in very frank question and answer sessions.
President Infantino informed the participants that, alongside the Secretary General, he is committed to increasing diversity at FIFA, and strengthening FIFA and football, by ensuring women play a key role. The creation of a Women’s Football Division at FIFA will help support the implementation of tailor-made initiatives, also aimed at accelerating women’s football development globally.
Each of the 34 participants will now continue to develop personal ‘Accelerator’ projects, designed to put the learnings from the programme, ultimately into practice at their respective Federation, or inside FIFA itself.
In FIFA’s 2014 Women’s Football Survey, only 8 per cent of executive committee members at member association level were found to be female. This programme will help increase, together with FIFA’s reforms that endorse greater diversity and female representation, that number of women globally.
The graduation ceremony will be in Amsterdam in early 2017, and we will be there again to bring you more on this innovative programme.
Frauen-Bundesliga live on Free-TV on Sport1 | 29.08.2016
The league of the Olympic Champions has a new home: Sport1 will be showing the Allianz Frauen-Bundesliga live in Free-TV beginning with the new season. Sport1 GmbH has been granted non-exclusive, platform-neutral rights from the DFB until the end of the 2017/2018 season. Per season, there will be up to 22 live matches aired in this contract. So on each matchday, one top match’s airing will be possible. The programs can be offered in Free-TV on Sport1, as well as on Sport1+ and via livestream on Sport1.de.
Hannelore Ratzeburg, DFB vice president for women and girls football, says: “We’re glad to gain a strong partner for the Allianz Frauen-Bundesliga through cooperation with Sport1, who have a lot of experience as live broadcasters for many kinds of sport. Above all, the path into digital media – a domain in which Sport1 is incredibly well-set – we see in the partnership as a chance to generate more classes of viewers.
And Dirc Seemann, head editor and director of content for Sport1, explains: “The Allianz Frauen-Bundesliga is a very attractive league, which fits perfectly in our live sport offerings. There’s even more desire for the start of the league because of the euphoria of the Olympics victory of the women’s national team. We’re serving the fans’ interests after the triumph in Rio by supplementing the live airings in TV with highlight videos and a comprehensive coverage on Sport1.de and in our Sport1-Apps.”
The opening match between champions FC Bayern Munich and SC Freiburg will be shown live on Saturday (from 15:55 CET) in Sport1 on Free-TV. It will be commentated by Jan Platte. The women from Munich have five gold medalists in their team with Melanie Behringer, Sara Däbritz, Melanie Leupolz, Leonie Maier, and Simone Laudehr. The plan for the project of title defense for coach Thomas Wörle’s team is to catch a good start. But a strong opponent is waiting in SC Freiburg: the women from Breisgau, whose goalkeeper Laura Benkarth was also part of the DFB-squad in the Olympics, ended last season in fourth place.
On the second matchday, Sport1 will show the duel between Turbine Potsdam and 1. FFC Frankfurt live on September 10 (at 13:55 CET). On the third matchday on September 25 (at 13:55), the top-match between champions FC Bayern and DFB-Pokal winner VfL Wolfsburg is on the TV-schedule.
Teenage girls, politics and the heroic struggle behind the Venezuela U-17s’ success | 06.05.2016
In the 49th minute of the Women’s U-17 Sudamericano final, Deyna Castellanos struck a gorgeous goal against Brazil. That goal ultimately lead Venezuela to victory in front of 41,320 cheering fans. The crowd at Cabudare’s Metropolitan Stadium set an attendance record, but although the hosts were favorites in the tournament, they weren’t just there to cheer the trophy. The Venezuela U-17 win was so much more than a piece of silverware.
The squad was an absolute beast in the latest South American tournament, playing like there was no tomorrow. They scored 24 goals in seven games, a rate of 3.4 goals per game. With her speed and amazing style, combined with her incredible control of the ball, it is no surprise that Castellano scored the highest number of goals in the tournament, with 12. Venezuela’s attack was fantastic, but their defense was also from another world, conceding just three goals in the tournament.
But winning the tournament was not the team’s greatest achievement. Although Brazil is always the reference point, no matter the gender, age group or the quality of their performance, Venezuela had won the continental tournament in 2013, so they were simply retaining their title. No, the Venezuela U-17 team are heroes because of everything they went through to simply be able to play in the tournament, never mind winning.
The fact that more than 41,000 cheered them on at the final is due to the extreme political, economic and social crisis in which Venezuela is involved. Electricity blackouts are widespread — as unbelievable as it seems, people are often without electricity for four hours per day. A water crisis means many neighborhoods and urban areas do not know what a drinkable water supply even is. Some go up to six months without running water. As for food, a lack of it means people can spend up to three hours in line just waiting to buy bread.
No electricity. A lack of access to running water. Not enough food. These crises force people to look for some sense of achievement, and they look to their sports teams. This is the reason these teenage girls are heroes. Each of these teenagers gives hope to millions who have little reason to smile.
But after the tournament, the government of Venezuela used these girls for political gain, saying the victory was possible thanks to the investments of the so-called “revolution.” Just like a mediocre parent who never supported his children’s dreams, but attempts to profit from their success, the government tried to make the girls’ victory its own. Mervin Maldonado, secretary of sport, said, “This victory was possible thanks to our investments. We not only invested money, we also invested hard work, because this is a priority in our politics.”
After the government attempted to grab credit for the victory of the teenager warriors, top scorer Castellanos went public with a few hard truths about the path they had to walk to reach the top. The squad captain said that two months before the South American tournament started, they still had no field on which to practice. The government had invested plenty of money in the men’s U-20 squad, who were already training outside Venezuela to prepare for the 2017 South American Youth Championship.
The economic crisis in Venezuela also affected the players’ personal lives. Coach Kenneth Zseremeta stated, “I am very affected when the girls come to me asking for help because they don’t have money to eat or to buy medication.”
The reality of life in Venezuela is reflected in the life of Yulianny Goyo, who lives in extreme poverty. She and her family live in a tiny house built from zinc sheets. Like thousands of other Venezuelans, Goyo’s family squats on public land, which has become increasingly normal over the past 14 years.
Nor is she is not the only player of the team living in these conditions. Daniuska Rodriguez, who wears the number 7 shirt, also lives in a house made of zinc, in one of the most dangerous neighborhoods of Carabobo State, in the north of the country. Daniuska opened the doors of her house to media reporters to show the conditions in which she lives. As a result, both players and supporters demanded help for these girls. But when Daniuska’s family asked for assistance, the local government only sent a bit of money, which does not solve the problem and, in fact, shows a lack of commitment to helping the players.
Although the government attempted to take some of the glory from these girls and use it for their own purposes, the supporters know who the true heroes are. The performances of the Venezuela U-17 team, and the strength it took for the girls to not only reach the tournament but win it, have inspired the country. Thousands of supporters, living in similar conditions, have found figures to admire, allowing them to dream big, and to believe anyone can become a winner, no matter where they grew up. Their force of will, the passion they showed in every game, make Venezuela’s U-17 women the hidden heroes fighting for their country’s people.
