Mighty Warriors deserve better

By Farayi Mungazi

When the Zimbabwe’s national women’s team qualified for the 2016 women’s Africa Cup of Nations, they presented the Zimbabwe Football Association and the entire male-dominated football establishment with a perfect opportunity to dispel the notion that tokenism underpins their commitment to the women’s game.

It will come as no great surprise though that the Mighty Warriors have been left to fend for themselves. In fact, what we have seen over the last few weeks is a lesson in how not to prepare for a major tournament.

Shadreck Mlauzi’s squad only went into camp yesterday – just two weeks before the event kicks off. And how many friendlies have they played in preparation for their campaign in Cameroon?

It must be intensely frustrating for the coach and heart-breaking for his players. On the other hand, all the stops are being pulled to arrange practice matches for the Warriors ahead of their trip to Gabon next year.

This makes it hard to shake off the narrative that women are low down the list of priorities at ZIFA House. ZIFA, like most football federations in Africa, has historically ignored or treated women’s football as an afterthought.

While people run around to secure funding and support for men’s teams, the women struggle for their very existence.

Yet, despite this institutional neglect, the Mighty Warriors managed to qualify for two major competitions; this month’s continental championship and the Olympic Games in Rio earlier this year.

For the love of the game, they have endured all sorts of problems and derisory financial rewards.

If nothing else, they deserve medals for the pain, shame and hardships encountered in pursuit of a sporting dream.

Yes, money problems affect all levels of Zimbabwean football, but there is no doubt that women bear brunt of it for no reason other than their gender.

Whether they will be sufficiently motivated for the Cameroon adventure is also a moot point. But I fear that the old adage of “if you fail to prepare, then prepare to fail” will haunt them when the African championship gets underway on November 19.

Whether or not football tickles your fancy, I believe this is a matter that transcends sport and goes to the very heart of how we as a society view women.

Let’s not skirt around the issue (no pun intended); when we fail to take women’s sport seriously, we fail to take women seriously.

Do we as a society believe that our mothers, sisters and daughters have a right to pursue their sporting dreams?

Is second-class citizenship the highest status they should aspire to in the sporting world?

For all the progress women have made in Zimbabwe, the football establishment still has an uneasy relationship with the female sector and that has created an environment where respect for women footballers is sorely lacking.

But even more than that, for cultural and traditional reasons, many of these girls are brought up in an environment that makes them feel inferior. Football can and should change that.

The Mighty Warriors have been competing in continental tournaments since 2000.

The road they have travelled since then has been rough. Their legitimate grievances always get kicked into the long grass by people yet to accept that football is not a male preserve.

Irksome as this must be to some, a good football match played by men is as good as a good football match played by women.

This is why the chasm that exists between the Warriors and the Mighty Warriors makes me ashamed to be a man.

The situation faced by female footballers in our nation is appalling. It is also untenable.

After all, the Mighty Warriors were the first football team – men or women – from Zimbabwe to play at the Olympics.

This matters because taking part in the Olympics far outstrips the achievements their male counterparts have achieved.

People will point out that they lost all three group matches in Rio, but their performances against world-class opposition offered plenty of encouragement for the future.

However, it was also evident that many of our players were underdeveloped and under-prepared.

So for the umpteenth time, the question is this: For how long are we going to let the hues and cries of our women go unnoticed?

Let me remind you of what Pierre de Coubertin, the Frenchman who founded the Olympic Games in 1896, said about women’s participation: “As to the admission of women to the Games, I remain strongly against it. It was against my will that they were admitted to a growing number of competitions.”

As I see it, women’s football is in such a state of despair because of the kind of sexist views preached by the “father” of the modern Olympics.

All other reasons people may give to justify their lack of support for women who play sport, however many and varied, are nothing, but a smokescreen. It is no longer acceptable for women to be treated as second-class citizens in any sport. The Herald