Ghost stadiums sell women's football games short

The 2017 Cosafa Women's Championships under way in Zimbabwe is a spectacular event. In a sense that it provides opportunity for women footballers especially the Brave Gladiators who have for some time not taken part in any championships or a home league for that matter to showcase their skills.

The drought in terms of lack of football activities has really not been great for these athletes who are seeking any possible opportunity to make it out of their impoverished situations and to use their skills to better their situations financially or otherwise.

An event of this magnitude provides a chance for the ladies to play their hearts out and hopefully be scouted to play internationally.

The only disappointing factor is the empty stadium. There are only a handful of spectators since the games kicked off.

I am concerned about this because as an athlete, the total number of spectators affects your ability to play. I also say that spectators act as an extra player, giving that much-needed boost to the team to carry on.

We have seen this so many times when a team is a goal down, but come back to score and even win a tournament because of the extra support from the crowd.

It's very disappointing that a championship of this calibre is played on a weekday. How do we plan on promoting the women's game if nobody sees them play?

We have players who ply their trade in Germany and USA taking part in this championship. How do we motivate them to travel all the way from their respective clubs to represent their country if the very people they play for are nowhere in sight?

No matter how hard the cameramen tries to focus on the small pockets of fans, every wide shot of the pitch revealed the cavernous empty space that condemned game after game to near silence.

It's really underwhelming how as organisers we sell ourselves short. Is it the lack of lack of enthusiasm from fans to turn up also a contributing factor or what might be the case? How do we sell women football to African people?

The low turnouts at matches are a serious embarrassment to the country and must be improved on, if we are to demonstrate to the world our passion for football regardless of the fact that it is played by women or men.

Football is truly the favourite sport among Africans so when a championship like this comes up, let us market the tournament well. Yes, we cannot force anyone to sit down and watch a game but we can try to get school learners, church groups to fill the stadiums. We can even ask local choirs to turn up and sing a song or two for cheer.

Let's camouflage the stadiums and sell hope and football dreams to nations. I know there are a lot of girls if not boys who want to someday play a match in a full stadium and be cheered by local people to perform better and to score a goal.

Let's give the youth those hopes by planning better. I know that it is easier said than done but if I as a journalist see the need to address the problem I believe you as a fan has the duty to turn up when the is a football match and cheer your team on.

While we are at it. Let's push our girl child to better in sport. Let us accord them the opportunity to excel, whether they choose to play football, netball, hockey or whatever else. We owe it to ourselves to turn up when they have a match and to support them to do better. If you don't, who will?



[email protected]