Maurice Kambukwe
Eight Windhoek schools yesterday received equipment from the Confederation of African Football’s (CAF) latest initiative, which will see young girls taking part in the Under-15 seven-aside School Girl Competition, slated for next year.
The eight schools, which will take part in the competition, are A.I. Steenkamp Primary School, Amazing Kids Private School, Bethold Himumuine Primary School, Faith Primary School, Goreangab Secondary School, Mandume Primary School, M.H. Greef Primary School and Tobias Hainyeko Primary School.
The competition aims to develop women football on the continent and create more football competitions for women and girls.
The competition will be played as a league, starting on 22 February 2021 and will conclude with a Girls’ Football Festival in May.
Speaking at a well-attended handover ceremony at the Namibia Football Association (NFA) centre in the capital, tournament coordinator Astrid Vries said the seven-aside tournament would help women football to grow.
“We hope to create more women football competitions after this, and it will also determine if the tournament needs to be extended to other regions or not. All of that will depend on the success of the Under-15 seven-aside in the capital,” she said.
She also added that this new women’s competition will also add value to the existing programmes such as Galz & Goals league and the national team.
“We are confident that this new league wont only help unearthing more new talent but add a lot of value to existing programmes such as Galz & Goalz sponsored by Unicef, the national women’s team and Galz centres and the women super league in partnership with the Skorpion Zinc,” Vries added.
Also speaking at the launch was Linda Ita from Amazing Kids Private School who said that the competition will help in giving the opportunity to girl children to follow a career in football.
“As young girls, it’s a very positive initiative, it will enable us to choose and persuade a career in football. This sponsorship to our school means that sports will develop and will give an opportunity to more girls to partake in the sport that’s mainly male dominated,” she added.
- mkambukwe@nepc.com