31 July 2018– In the month of August, the South African Football Association (SAFA) will host a series of women’s provincial football meetings where SAFA Vice-President, Ria Ledwaba, will be travelling to all Provinces to discuss the best way to take women’s football to the next level.
Ledwaba also said the Provincial meetings will serve as a platform for club owners and all stakeholders involved in the women’s game to express some of the grievances they might have experienced in their own LFAs, and how they can move forward from those experiences as a collective.
“We have decided to host these meetings Province by Province because we want to hear the grievances club owners and other stakeholders are experiencing at the ground level,” Ledwaba said.
“These could be an administration issue, questions regarding players not being called up into our national team setups and so on. We want to know what they are experiencing so that we can come up with proper strategies and move forward.”
The first provincial meeting will take place on 13 August 2018 at Zororo Lodge in Polokwane, before Ledwaba makes her way to other remaining eight provinces on scheduled dates mentioned below.
The SAFA Vice President also stated that she had full confidence that the highly anticipated inaugural national women’s league will kick-off by next year, should everything go according to plan.
“We have been speaking to a whole lot of potential sponsors to join us on this massive project,” Ledwaba said.
“The NEC has given us the go ahead to have the league up and running by next year and we are excited about that. However, with that said; there are still a whole lot of things involved to get such a massive project underway.
“For one, should it be a 12-team league or a 16 team league for example. And how are we going to get all teams playing against each throughout the country. These are examples of some key areas we need to finalise first before we can get this league up and running and in perfect order.”
Time Venues and Dates of upcoming women’s Provincial Meetings
13 August 2018: Zororo Lodge in Polokwane, Limpopo (15H00)
14 August 2018: The Ridge Casino in Witbank, Mpumalanga (13H00)
18 August 2018: Safa Lecturer Hall in Bloemfontein, Free State (11H00)
19 August 2018: Cricket Club in Buffalo City, Eastern Cape (10H00)
21 August 2018: Safa House in Johannesburg, Gauteng (16H00)
23 August 2018: Lona’s Hotel in Mafikeng, North West (16H00)
24 August 2018: UWC at Athlone Stadium, Western Cape (18H30)
25 August 2018: Orange River Hotel in Upington, Northern Cape (10H00)
26 August 2018: Gooderson Tropicana Hotel, KwaZulu-Natal (10H00)