Can Mares fast-track a paradigm shift?
Mqondisi Dube | Saturday March 12, 2022 06:00
The plot has been plodding along for ages. Despite efforts to elevate women in sports, the pace has largely been sluggish. A case of the heart is willing but the flesh is weak.
Countless blueprints have been developed to place sportswomen at par with their male counterparts, but scales remain uneven.
However, there are pockets of hope as across the globe, there has been a growing movement upping the ante to fight for gender parity in the sport.
After a six-year legal battle, the United States (US) women’s soccer team scored a landmark victory last month when football authorities agreed to equal remuneration for both sexes.
“For our generation, knowing that we are going to leave the game in an exponentially better place than we found it, is everything,” US midfielder, Megan Rapinoe was quoted by Sky Sports after the victory.
“That’s what it’s all about because, to be honest, there is no justice in all of this if we don’t make sure it doesn’t happen again,” she added. The US joins Wales, New Zealand, Brazil, Australia and Norway among countries that have equal pay arrangements for both the men’s and women’s teams. Former world number one tennis player, Novak Djokovic once said the women’s game did not have the same pulling effect, hence the pay disparities.
While the struggle for equal remuneration has gathered pace, the disparity is felt much earlier in the process.
The Mares do not have a full-time coach despite making their international debut in 2002.
It is only 20 years later that the local association is drafting a contract for the women’s national team coach. Their preparations are usually without international friendly matches, and there is little hype around their games.
The national league has not been played since 2016 and among the diverted P6 million FIFA funds at BFA, the majority was meant for the women’s game.
BFA president, Maclean Letshwiti has previously acknowledged that the shortest route to the World Cup would be through women’s football.
“The quickest way to the World Cup is through women’s football. Women’s football in Botswana has proven that there is a huge improvement and it should be our deliberate policy at the association to put more resources in women’s football,” he told Mmegi Sport in November. This was after a cash injection of P2.43 million from Diamond Trading Company, meant to reinvigorate the women’s game.
The authorities are now under pressure to walk the talk as results keep rolling in.
In 2020, Botswana reached the first COSAFA Cup final, before losing 1-0 to South Africa.
In the same year, the Mares beat a Banyana Banyana side fresh from the Olympic Games, while they have held their own against perennial headaches, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Despite the evident progress, the transformation has been slow.
After the Mares historic AWCON qualification last month, there was brief euphoria, which has since died down. The team received P300,000 from Lucara Diamond Company and P550,000 from the government. This saw players walk away with a maximum of P31,000 each, their highest pay cheque to date.
However, it still pales into insignificance compared to what their male counterparts pocket.
The 4x400metre relay team, which won bronze at the Olympic Games last year, was rewarded with houses in addition to cash incentives amounting to more than P250,000.
The Zebras team that qualified for its first AFCON finals, was rewarded with P25,000 per player, before other cash incentives, and this was a decade ago.
The Mares can barely match that figure 10 years on.
But the recent AWCON qualification success could arm-twist stakeholders, including the media, supporters and sponsors, into a quicker paradigm shift. However, the road ahead is long and arduous.