Cape Town - The University of the Western Cape (UWC) launched the She-Bobo soccer league for girls in both the Under-10 and Under-8 age categories in Cape Town on Friday.
SA Football Association president Danny Jordaan says the league’s launch could not have come at a better time.
“It is a project that we are certainly delighted about and will support. It’s in the context of us making a bid for the Women’s World Cup in 2027,” said Jordaan.
“We are going to launch our intention to bid and then a full bidding process will be outlined by Fifa … around the time that we will see the launch of She-Bobo. It is indeed a wonderful initiative,” he said.
“UWC has made its contribution. More than 15 of our national team players come from UWC – both in terms of sport and education. Many of them are graduates and it’s no wonder that 80 percent of the Banyana team are graduates. It is something we encourage. We hope these girls that start at an early age will eventually enrol at the University to continue their studies. This is one of the most important things: sport and education, and not a choice between a sporting career and having an education.”
Professor Tyrone Pretorius, UWC rector and vice-chancellor said: “It is our hope that She-Bobo becomes the blueprint for how universities around the country can engage communities through sport and become the drivers for social change as the anchor institutions in our society.
“As we celebrate our heroes as the Wafcon champions, we welcome the new cohort of future stars gracing our sporting fields in the She-Bobo at UWC league. We will be watching with great interest the progress of these little superstars, from goals to graduation gowns.”
She-Bobo at UWC will include soccer clubs in neighbouring communities and across the metropole to play in a league of their own in 2023. On 22 October, UWC will present a showcase football festival - as a taste of what is to come - where girl footballers from 10 clubs will participate in a day of soccer fun at the UWC Stadium.
UWC is home to a senior women’s football side that finished third in the Hollywoodbets-sponsored national football league in 2021 and won the prestigious 2021 Varsity Women's Football tournament in the same year. Its alumnae include Thembi Kgatlana, a former African Women’s Footballer of the Year, who played European Champions League football and who scored South Africa’s first-ever goal in a women’s World Cup.
IOL Sport