Thinasonke Mbuli blasts poor communication over 2025 HWBSL fixtures

With some teams having kicked off their season at the start of March, UWC only played their opening match on Saturday, losing 1-0 to defending champions Mamelodi Sundowns Ladies at Lucas Moripe Stadium.

Speaking exclusively to SABC Sport, Mbuli expressed disappointment at the lack of communication regarding the way forward, which affects their strategic plan for the season ahead.

“I don’t feel like, as clubs, we get the respect we deserve. All clubs did pre-season. We were ready to kick-off the first weekend of March and were told that we need to wait, only the televised matches will go ahead," said Mbuli.

"Now we did a periodisation plan, we said okay, we will be off for this long and come back and do pre-season for this long, anticipating to kick-off the first week of March. 

"Now there’s no communication, there’s no way forward, we don’t know if we are going to play or not, now this means we have wasted so much money in pre-season. Had they told us on time, we would have delayed our pre-season."

Mbuli added the disrupted start to the new season also affects the teams' performances, which will affect Banyana Banyana’s preparation to defend the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations title in July as a result.

"In the past four weeks, we as coaches have been forced to be creative because the pre-season is done, and we don’t know if we will play or not," she added.

"I hope this will be resolved soon, it is affecting the teams' performances and it will also affect the national team when it comes to preparing for the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations."

The coastal side is set to face University of Fort Hare on Saturday in the Eastern Cape, but their travel could be affected with the association having failed to pay clubs their grants.

"We obviously need to do some match analysis on Fort Hare, but our administrators stated that if we don’t receive the grant, we will not be able to travel, which makes it a bit of a challenge," she concluded.