Banyana coach calls for professional women’s league
Banyana Banyana coach Joseph Mkhonza has called on the South African Football Association (Safa) to introduce a professional women’s Premier League.
Banyana returned from the African Women’s Championships (AWC) in Equatorial Guinea yesterday.
They lost 4-0 to the hosts in the final.
“If you go to Brazil and Japan, you get competitive teams because those players play week in and week out. And that’s why they are the top-ranked nations.
For us to be able to compete with them we need to take the same route,” added Mkhonza.
Mkhonza was full of praise for his players despite their defeat in the final.
“The players work tremendously hard when we ask them to and everyone deserves a massive pat on the back after a really tough tournament. It takes a lot of courage to come out and play well, especially away from home. We played hard and well against Nigeria.
I even stressed before the game (final) that even though we had won against Nigeria, the players should not be careless and they had the determination to win the final. It’s unfortunate that we did not do well in our last game. My girls still focused and I know they will regroup,” said Mkhonza.
Captain Amanda Dlamini said 2012 was a favourable year for Banyana.
“It has been a great year for us. We qualified for the Olympics for the first time and won a silver medal in the AWC. We also beat Nigeria for the first time since the formation of the team. And our coach was named national coach of the year,” Dlamini said.
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