THE early elimination by the Zambia Under-17 girl’s team, fondly known as the Copper Princess’, is unfortunate but not surprising, especially looking at the inadequate preparations that the team was given ahead of such an important event like the FIFA Women’s U17 World Cup.
That is why even last week I emphasised the need for the players to enjoy themselves at the outing because they were no match for the kind of opposition they faced at the ongoing Dominican Republic 2024 FIFA Women’s U17 World Cup.
The team’s qualification for this competition was known way in advance but for some reason, the preparations were taken so lightly and one wonders why this was so.
It is different from the way the Copper Queens were exposed ahead of their maiden FIFA Women’s World Cup appearance in Australia/ New Zealand as they camped in Europe and played a series of international matches.
Those matches against the likes of Germany helped expose the team and gave them a feel of what to expect as they headed for the World Cup but that was never the same for the Copper Princesses, who looked more or less abandoned.
It is from this background that it was difficult to expect much from the girls because they lacked the exposure to play at such a high level.
Or maybe it was a matter of limited resources to ensure the girls got the needed preparations to try and perform to the best of their ability.
The team is talented and just needs to be supported and exposed to more matches as they prepare for their upcoming competitions.
And talking about preparations, again we saw a late departure to South Africa by our Copper Queens to compete in the COSAFA Women’s Championships.
As much as the competition is in South Africa, I feel there was a need for the team to have arrived early, got settled and prepare for the tournament, unlike arriving a day before the game and two days after the competition had started.
There is a need to attach great seriousness to how things should be run and ensure desired results are attained.
The results at the World Cup in the Dominican Republic shows how little investment was put into the team and hope the same might not happen in South Africa so that we end the slide our women’s game is currently and sadly going through.
This also calls for the private sector to come and even adopt one of these teams unlike just sitting on the sidelines waiting for success and then jumping onto the bandwagon without having invested a single ngwee.
The private sector must now seriously consider either long or medium-term sponsorship for the women’s national teams instead of just using marketing gimmicks tied into the euphoria of qualification.
Women’s football has great potential, as proved by qualifications to the World Cup and Olympic games, and for a developing country like Zambia, companies can equally benefit from sponsoring these women’s teams starting from the Copper Queens to the Under-20 and 17 sides.
Additionally, this should start from the league which regrettably has no sponsor and this calls for an urgent need for companies especially those led by women to take a lead and invest and ensure our game has a strong backbone before we cry about lack of results at the national team.
It is by heavily investing in these teams that we shall be able to see the fruits come alive at tournaments such as the Africa Cup and World Cup including the Olympic Games.
As Zambia celebrates 60 years of Independence, it is important that the girl-child, and in this case, our women teams, get the necessary long-term support for them to shine globally and produce more Rachael Kundananji’s and Barbra Banda’s.
Failure to do so will seriously see a decline in the strides made so far in women’s football.
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