Women’s football welcomes CAF strategic plan
National Women’s Football Association (NWFA) has welcomed the first ever Confederation of African Football (CAF) strategic plan which aims at shaping women’s football future.
A statement from CAF, says the strategic plan, with the slogan #ItsTimeItsNow, represents the new identity for the women’s game and will serve as a reference for the promotion and development of the sport across the continent and as a guide to success for member associations.
The strategy is built on five main priorities namely, development; competitions; marketing and promotion; professionalisation and leadership and social impact.
In development, CAF plans to accelerate the growth of the women’s game at all levels across Africa by facilitating more playing opportunities for women and girls and providing increased and improved training opportunities for technical staff involved in the women’s game and linking capacity building courses to development programmes and competitions.
CAF says competitions are drivers of football development and hopes to increase the number of women’s competitions for clubs notably the CAF Women’s Champions League while in marketing and promotion the continental football governing body will create a strong and unifying women’s football brand for Africa that leverages African values and has regional and global appeal.
In professionalisation and leadership CAF will ensure our efforts towards the growth of the women’s game are sustainable by working with stakeholders to professionalise the structures surrounding women’s football on and off the field and increase in female administrators.
CAF hopes women’s football will leverage the power of football to socially impact on African women and girls positively. Also, the use of football as a tool to educate the girl child, empower and encourage participation.
Unveiling the strategic plan on Friday CAF president Ahmad Ahmad said: “Today is historic day for women’s football in Africa. The launch of the CAF Women’s Football Strategy is in line with our commitment to give hope to the youth across the continent and to develop women’s football at all levels.
“It sets out a clear roadmap for specific actions which will revolutionize women’s football. My gratitude goes out to the key stakeholders and experts who took part in putting together this strategic document, which is the beginning of many things to come.#ItsTimeItsNow.”
National Women’s Football Association president Suzgo Ngwira said they will adopt the CAF strategic plan.
“We will be developing our own country strategy soon which will be aligned too the CAF one,” she said.
Ngwira said NWFA will use its $500 000 (about K375 million) Covid-19 relief fund from Fifa to implement the strategic plan.
“For us we have to start by utilising the $500 000 (about K375 million) Fifa Covid-19 grant prudently. Slowly but surely we will get there,” she said.
The funds are specifically for the development of women’s football as indicated by the world football governing body.
“A universal solidarity grant of $1 million (about 750 million) will be made available to all member associations and an additional grant of $500 000 will be allocated specifically to women’s football. In addition, each confederation will receive a grant of $ 2 million (about K1.5 billion),” reads part of Fifa’s statement. Among others, NWFA intends to establish a national league for women’s football and training coaches.
