By Agnes Amondi,

African regional bodies have finally ‘smelt the coffee’ as it were and arrived to the party that is women’s football.

For quite a while now, female national teams have had games that are few and far in between.

Thus, the FIFA international break has literally been just that – a break riddled with inactivity that has seen quite a number of nations unranked by the world governing body. 

For aforementioned reasons, it is a huge sigh of relief and a breath of fresh air that the five bodies – CECAFA (East Africa), COSAFA (Southern Africa), WAFU (Western Africa), UNIFFAC (Central Africa) and UNAF (North Africa) now have women’s regional tournaments organized for various age groups held sequentially. 

Already this year, UNAF held its first senior competition in 11 years won by Morocco, WAFU Zone A and UNIFFAC followed with their inaugural editions where Senegal, Equatorial Guinea bagged the gong, COSAFA U17 is imminent despite its postponement due to the COVID – 19 pandemic – which shows the intention of developing structures as well as players and the quality of the game.

This also helps countries that have been in the wilderness revive their participation.

Thus, in the subsequent paragraphs, we gauge the impact of these competitions in various dynamics of women’s football in Africa:

Reviving and/or maintaining active status;

 In the latest FIFA Women’s ranking (December 13), only 29 member associations were ranked. 15 weren’t. 

These are: Burkina Faso, Burundi, Central African Republic, Chad, Egypt, Eritrea, Gambia, Guinea, Liberia, Libya, Niger, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Togo, Tunisia.

As per FIFA: “countries that have not played more than five matches against officially ranked opponents and have been inactive for more than 18 months miss out.”

However, some of these countries due to regional competitions have returned to action.

Senegal, Sierra Leone, Tunisia, Liberia, Guinea, Chad and Central African Republic were in action in their respective tournaments whilst Burkina Faso will feature in the upcoming Africa Women’s Cup of Nations (AWCON) qualifiers against Algeria.

That said, the competitions are young with a handful of participants hence need proper nurturing in order to become solid and attractive. 
It also needs consistency to build momentum, keep people interested and drive growth.

Growing/developing interest amongst administrators, media, fans; 

The heightened focus from the associations as part of their compliance measures with the FIFA Forward Regulations has pushed not only the creation of regional competitions but continuous growth and development.

According to the FIFA Forward Development Programme 2.0 for the 2019 – 2022 cycke, zonal/regional associations are given a financial entitlement of up to USD 1,000,000 provided they organise at least one women’s, two boys’ and two girls’ competitions at national or club level.

Accountability is paramount as per their agreement with FIFA thus the funds go into developing the game.

Media, mainstream or otherwise, has also come forward. Zonal associations have their own media outlet that provide extensive coverage of the events for instance COSAFA media or WAFU media.

Independent outlets and individuals cover the tournaments this enhancing the coverage. Three broadcasters provided coverage for WAFU Zone A in Sierra Leone.

This leads to the development of a fan base that adds to those who already follow up on the competitions.

At the recently concluded WAFU Zone A, WAFU media reported: “over 20,000 fans attended the final between Senegal and Mali.”

COSAFA Media has cited the presence of educational workshop organised by its association. Administration is one critical area that it constantly addresses.

Catching up with the rest in the continent/world;

 Inadequate competitions has been a huge draw back for women’s football in Africa that has seen them lag behind the rest of the world. But, that is gradually changing.

COSAFA has been held at least since 2002 with varying years in between but it’s the longest compared to the other tourneys. CECAFA Senior Women will be entering its fourth edition, UNIFFAC and WAFU had their first as UNAF ran for a second time.

Whilst Nigeria is still the team to beat, South Africa, Kenya, Ghana, Cameroon and now Zambia have emerged as nations that are showing the intent of conquering the continent. 

As far as the rest of the world is concerned, African nations still has a long way to go to catch up with some European countries, America, South American and even the Asian and Oceania countries.

More importantly, consistent presence of these competitions will largely effect how African nations develop, technically, tactically, professionally and in other aspects.