Banyana Banyana coach’s plea ahead of USA departure

With the women’s senior national team reaching the round of 16 at the FIFA World Cup recently, there was an expectation sponsors and endorsements would be throwing themselves to align with the players.

There’s been minimal to no hype, and Ellis wants this to change.

"I'd like to be in the room with sponsorship people because you know you want a product that's gonna give you mileage and I think Banyana has done that. Two successive Olympics, two successive World Cups, four successive COSAFA cups, successive WAFCON finals then winning it, finally getting to the last 16. I'm not sure what needs to be done," Ellis said.

One of Banyana’s major backers is SASOL, and recently Shield – having come on board as a sponsor at the World Cup co-hosted by Australia and New Zealand – struck a five-year contract with SAFA.

Ellis remains bemused as to why this list hasn’t grown.

"Maybe someone can tell us what it is that they are looking for as cooperates out there because SASOL took a brave decision when they went out of men's football. They were sponsoring the under-23 team, better known as the Amaglug-glug.

They were sponsoring them and came in and took a brave decision and as a sponsor, I think they're extremely happy and I think the other sponsor must be thinking 'We missed out'.

So, maybe some sponsorship gurus need to tell me what more needs to be done because this team has shown their worth and the quality, over and over."