The Confederation of African Football (CAF) has pledged to ensure a “strong and sustainable” future for the women’s game following the release of a new study.
The CAF has unveiled its inaugural “Women’s Football Landscape Report” after conducting extensive research across the continent about the state of the game.
Fifty-two of the 54 CAF member federations provided data through the survey which aims to give women’s football concrete statistics for future reference.
Development and participation, league and competition and structure and governance were the three key areas outlined in the 87-page report.
A total of 47 out of the 54 African nations have women’s teams, with 150,653 players, 4,140 coaches and 4,724 referees registered by the CAF.
The survey found that 67 per cent of the National Federations had a women’s football department, with 90 per cent claiming to have developed a strategy for the game.
It also revealed that 59 per cent of the governing bodies were not receiving Government support towards enhancing women’s football.
CAF President Patrice Motsepe claimed that the development and growth of the women’s game in Africa was his organisation’s “top priority”.
“It is a commitment to the women who play the game, to the young girls who dream of a football career, and to all those who invest in the promotion and advancement of African women’s football,” Motsepe wrote in the report.
“CAF has made good progress over the past two years and is strongly committed to continuing its mission to make African girls and women’s football among the best in the world.
“We are confident that African women’s football will in the medium to long term period become self-sustaining and globally competitive.
“At CAF, we have dedicated significant human and financial resources to develop and improve the quality of our female players, coaches, referees, administrators and other football stakeholders.
“The increasing popularity of women’s football in Africa and globally is an indication of its potential and unique power to contribute to uniting people from different racial, ethnic, religious and cultural backgrounds.
“We are aware that despite the significant progress that has been made, there is still a lot of work to be done to make African women’s football amongst the best in the world.”
Meskerem Tadesse Goshime, head of women’s football for the CAF, stressed that there had been “great progress” for female participants in Africa.
“There is a need for proper monitoring in terms of player registration, as the continent has only 150,653 registered women players,” said Goshime.
“The data also shows that these players are young, with more than 70 per cent of them being under 20 years old.
“There is also a great improvement in our member associations in terms of the commitment of women’s U20 and U17 teams.
“We are seeing great improvement in leagues and competitions with 49 member associations having a first division competition for women.
“Our task will be to ensure that these competitions are strong and sustainable.”
