The Challenges Of The Girl Child In The Pursuit Of A Football Career: An African Perspective
Written by Oluwaseun Oyediji
From financial, social, to economic challenges, the girl child across Africa faces diverse challenges in a bid to chase a football career.
Charity they say, begins at home. It is a known fact that some parents do not support their girl child in the pursuit of their football careers. This, in most cases, has social and religious undertones.
Some parents believe so much in education – rightly so – and feel that a football career will hinder their wards from having a strong academic pursuit.
This belief, however, has been defeated, as there are various cases where a football player can merge the pursuit of a football career with academics to better improve her at all sides.
Others, especially with the sociological order of bride price want to train their girl child to be ripe for marriage to get a huge bride price before the wedding ceremony.
Some religions frown at the girl child putting on the adornment and dresses of male folks especial trousers and shots which forms integral parts of football kits.
These and other factors can be adduced for parental discouragement of the girl child’s football career pursuit.
For the few that are not tied down by these challenges and already play the game, financial and welfare challenges in African football push them to seek greener pastures outside their countries.
There have been incessant reports of players in African leagues being owed salaries in the women’s leagues coupled with unstable welfare packages.
For instance in Nigeria, a situation where a club pays less than 30,000 to 40,000 Naira (Around $70-100) monthly salaries to players is quite discouraging.
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In Africa and across the world, the girl child’s sexual molestation is a common decimal in women’s games which football is an integral part of.
This is common among male coaches in women’s football. In the United States of America (USA) National Women’s Super League (NWSL), North Carolina Courage fired coach Paul Riley amid allegations of sexual coercion and inappropriate comments about players’ weight and sexual orientation.
The Athletic published claims of abuse made by former NWSL players Sinead Farrelly and Mana Shim in addition to more than a dozen players from every team Riley has coached since 2010.
The allegations prompted the resignation of NWSL commissioner, Lisa Baird after some 19 months on the job last week and the postponement of all matches scheduled for Friday and Saturday.
Additionally, FIFA on Friday, opened an investigation into the case. It is rare that soccer’s international governing body gets involved in a controversy involving a member association. US Soccer also announced an independent investigation on Friday.
All these factors serve as storming blocks on the path of a girl child’s pursuit of a football career.
The Way Forward
A systemic revamp is important to be able to curb these anomalies.
This should start from top to bottom as administrators have a lot to do in a bid to help a girl child actualize her football dream.
Women’s football should be introduced at school levels across Africa as stipulated in CAF Women Football development plans so that parents will be familiar with their wards playing the game.
Educating religious bodies and parents is also an important measure through which the girl child can have the freedom to pursue their football careers.
We are using this medium to appeal to parents across Africa to encourage and support their girl child with an interest in football to pursue their dreams.
The league board across Africa and clubs should seek partnership with corporate bodies in a bid to better the welfare of players while the government creates an enabling environment for a girl child to thrive in their football career pursuit.
The advanced countries across the world that have won Olympic medals and FIFA Women’s World Cup also face near to similar challenges but find ways of solving the issues, leading to massive success.
Africa after participating in every edition of the FIFA Women’s World Cup from 1991 should be able to develop a good culture to enable girl child to thrive while playing football for the good of the game so that in the future, an African team can win medals at the world stage.
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