Mamelodi Sundowns Ladies head coach Jerry Tshabalala believes the world governing body FIFA needs to start paying attention to other continents and not only Europe.
This comes at the back of the announcement of the FIFA FiFPro Women’s World 11, which featured a lot of Europe-based players.
Tshabalala won the maiden CAF Women’s Champions League last year and says there is also talent in other continents that should also be recognised.
“My personal opinion, I feel like FIFA is only focusing on European teams. When you look at all those players, none of those players are from a team that plays in South America, none of those players are from a team that plays in Asia. What does that tell you? It tells you that Fifa is for Europeans alone,” Tshabalala told iDiski Times.
“Do you want to tell me there are no players from Asia, or South America? Marta used to dominate. Do you want to tell me there is no other Marta from Brazil or from Argentina? Some of these things are just demoralising as much as people are saying they are trying to promote women’s football.”
The defending Hollywoodbets Super League champions returned to training this week with Tshabalala saying he’s pleased they are not going to start from scratch fitness-wise because his players as they were not on vacation for long.
‘Kappa’, as the coach is affectionately known’ also admitted that he will beef up the squad for the upcoming campaign. However, the coach poured cold water on the reports that Sundowns were interested in signing Hasaacas Ladies and Ghana midfielder Evelyn Badu for a reported $8 000.
“Those are just speculations. I think what blew that thing out of proportion was when I was having a chat with Hasaacas coach saying this is one special player and I think could play for Sundowns,” added Tshabalala.
“I think that was what blew this thing out of proportion but there was nothing concrete that we agreed on. It was just a talk between coaches congratulating the players.
Tshabalala further says they received a proposed fixture late last year which suggested that the 2022 term could start late in March 2022.
However, there is still the matter of the Sasol National Championship, which was postponed last year due to the rising number of Covid-19 infections in the country.
Story by Lethabo Kganyago (@ngwanamogoto).
