Kaizer Chiefs’ Marketing and Commercial Director Jessica Motaung says the club will have a women’s team as they return to CAF inter-club competitions but made a rallying call for professionalisation of the league.
Chiefs will feature in CAF inter-club competition for the first time since reaching the Champions League final back in 2021, after winning the Nedbank Cup title and ending their decade-long trophy drought.
They will be competing in the Confederation Cup, the second-tier inter-club competition, while Mamelodi Sundowns and Orlando Pirates have qualified for the Champions League again by virtue of their league positions in the 2024/25 season.
In order to participate in the competition, each club should have a women’s team or affiliation with a women’s football team, which has been a regulation from the African football governing body, introduced three seasons ago.
“It’s important, women’s teams are achieving now because they are legitimised, it’s not just about partnerships, it’s really about teams having women’s teams, it’s important and what will be key for other leagues, is saying we should have professional league, so our women have a space to play in,” she said at the launch of the new Champions League trophy in Rosebank on Thursday afternoon.
“And other teams, like Kaizer Chiefs can have women’s teams to play in that platform – we have to, we have no choice, it will be a staggered approach, something we have to look at, but South Africa has to look at professionalising.
“The current status needs to be reviewed to make sure it’s feasible, clubs are struggling without the financial resources to hold it up and you’re seeing that at Sasol League, Hollywoodbets League.
“Wo we maybe we need a get together for women’s football to say what’s the vision, where is it going? So we can play meaningfully into it, not as lip service.
“It’s one of the things we as Chiefs have tried to say, how do we do it in the best way possible. Now with us being in CAF again, it’s important that we do it and we do it right.”
Motaung was part of the event as the deputy Chairperson of the African Club’s Association.
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