Motaung opens up on Chiefs Ladies team

Kaizer Chiefs chairman Dr Kaizer Motaung believes women™s football in South Africa will never be the same again, following the triumph of Banyana Banyana at the Women™s African Cup of Nations (WAFCON).

The South African women™s senior national football team lifted its first-ever WAFCON title on its sixth attempt when they beat Morocco 2-1 in their own backyard, in what was a sold-out final game played at the Prince Moulay Abdellah Stadium in Rabat on the weekend.

Speaking to SABC Sport at the Chiefs Village in Naturena on Monday, Motaung - one of the founding members of the National Soccer League in 1985 and the rebranded Premier Soccer League in 1996 - believes that Banyana™s success is pushing for the birth of a formal Professional Women™s League in the country.

He also revealed that, as Chiefs, they are already in the process of working on establishing a women™s team to follow in the footsteps of other PSL clubs like Mamelodi Sundowns, TS Galaxy, and more recently Royal AM.

"It means a lot because now, if we can be able to compete against England, USA, Finland, whatever, it means our game in the country will also have to take off so that we introduce ladies professional football in the country in a proper way," said Dr Motaung.

"Apart from the fact that CAF has put a stipulation that you have to have a ladies' team, it means it is the responsibility of every team playing football in the country to have a women's section, equally developing like the boys' section.

"We are looking into that [forming a women's team]... Timelines, we are not sure [about] but obviously, we have to prioritise what we do first, in terms of putting a team together with this one and that one, and also put plans together in terms of how do we get into that space of women's football."

By Velile Mnyandu