Women’s football is flourishing but misogyny is still not beaten

By Patson Kawewe | October 9, 2019

Not all that long ago, female football players struggled to find a pitch they could play on, let alone someone willing to pay them. In 1985 when almost no country had a women’s national team, women’s football was formally organized by the football association of Zambia in 1983.

Women’s football in Africa faces lots of problems that include limited access to education and fundamental inequality present in the society that occasionally allows for female-specific human rights abuses. Funding also is a problem for the women’s game in Africa, with most of the funding for women’s football in Africa coming from FIFA, not the local national football associations.

Zambia has never been this close to qualifying for the Olympic games, the team is just 360 minutes away from history and it can only be achieved if more stakeholders come on board.

The football Association of Zambia under the current administration of Mr. Andrew Kamanga has really improved and motivated the team by paying for allowances and always flying the team for international matches.

The team is close to dreamland and if only Government, NOCZ, The corporate world, and Women’s lobby groups can come together and motivate this team more, we will definitely qualify for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Zambia will take on Kenya in the fourth round with the first leg to be played in Kenya on 4th November and the return leg in Zambia 8 days later.

The winner over both legs will face either Ivory Coast or Cameroon in a two-legged encounter with the winner automatically qualifying for the Olympics while the loser plays Chile in a playoff.