The Falcons are soaring, but they have been red carded by funding obstacles

In the middle of the Cape Winelands, in southern Stellenbosch, a group of 21 teenage girls spend their Wednesday afternoons at soccer practice.

The girls gather on the field at Stellenzicht Secondary School, in Jamestown, for warm-up exercises against a backdrop of Hottentots-Holland Mountains. Some wear tracksuits, others a mix of casual clothes and school uniforms.

Head coach Shaun Daniels leads the Falcon Ladies Football Team at afternoon practice at Stellenzicht Secondary School, Stellenbosch, on 6 June 2019. (Photo: Aisha Abdool Karim)

Daniels came on board with another colleague and the two began coaching the team in 2016.

Lizel Hugo, 17, has been a member of the Falcon Ladies Football Team at Stellenzicht Secondary School, in Stellenbosch, since it started in 2016. (Photo: Aisha Abdool Karim)

When the Falcons began competing in the schools’ league they had to wait to accompany the boys’ team to other schools for matches. This did not always work in their favour, as not all local high schools had a girls’ team to play against and they sometimes had to drive to Cape Town to compete.

Unfortunately, that first year did not bring a lot of success, with Daniels describing the team as “beaten” and “hammered” in every game they played. The Falcons did not have easy access to gear and they borrowed kits from the under 15 boys’ team, sharing soccer boots.

The Falcon Ladies Football Team at Stellenzicht Secondary School, in Stellenbosch, will be the first female soccer team since the 1990s to compete in the Gothia Cup, an international youth tournament. (Photo: Aisha Abdool Karim)

However, in the two years since, the team have made a complete about turn. They began by leaving the schools’ league, because of the lack of teams to compete against, and became the only high school team playing in the Cape Winelands regional league. This move also made them eligible to earn an invitation to participate in the Gothia Cup, the biggest international youth soccer tournament.

The Falcons cannot afford to go to the Gothia Cup, the biggest international youth soccer tournament, which takes place in Sweden. (Photo: Karabo Mafolo)

There is just one problem: The Falcons cannot afford to go to the tournament, which takes place in Sweden. To compete, they need an estimated R22,000 per player. Since receiving the invitation in July 2018, Daniels and the other three coaches have been struggling to raise funds for the trip.

“The part of the funding is what actually cripples,” said Daniels. “That is the red card on our team sheet at the moment.”

Although the Gothia Cup begins on 14 July, the teams need to pay their accommodation deposits and apply for visas at least one month in advance. With the deadline on Friday, 14 June, the Falcons’ prospects are not looking promising. Despite their best efforts, the team is still R164,000 short of the amount needed to send enough players to Sweden.

Daniels said the coaches had reached out to several companies about possible sponsorships as well as the Department of Sports and Recreation. These attempts have been unsuccessful; his messages normally do not even receive replies. The money raised so far has come through school fundraising efforts and community members. Some family members of the players have taken out bank loans to contribute to the trip.

“Working behind the scenes has been tiring. It’s been tears and meetings and meetings and very late nights of trying to figure out what now?”

“We don’t [have] equality, we had so little money it’s not even funny. When I was playing I used to get a R400 daily allowance, R5,000 for a win and I’m sure this is still happening today.

Women’s soccer is continuously underrated and the attitude Modise describes begins at school level. Stellenzicht Secondary School, home of the Falcons, decided to host its own World Cup last year. Teachers were required to have two girls on their teams.

“I was trying to pick which girls to put on my team and the boys were like ‘no, but why must we have a girl because a girl can’t play as good as the boys, a girl is just going to fall’ and I feel like that mindset just spoke a lot,” recalled Falcons fitness coach Lara Bothma.

“Safa’s responsibility is to fund the leagues and related activity, such as coaching, refereeing, and administrative development programmes,” Paul said.

While Safa is unable to provide funding for teams such as the Falcons to compete in tournaments such as the Gothia Cup, the association does fully fund regions to play in inter-provincial tournaments.

Funding for Banyana mainly comes from Sasol, which also funds the Sasol Leagues across provinces. However, Paul said, that “does not cover all the needs of developing the women’s game, from playing to coaching to refereeing and, as such, the balance of the funding to support the programmes for women’s football used to come out of broadcast revenue, which now too has been stalled with the SABC protracted negotiations”.