Women’s Football

Women’s football moments

Capacity Building

COSAFA Women in Leadership Programme

Leadership development remains central to growing the women’s game. At the moment, Kudzai Kadzombe, Merry Bharu, Mildred Masvingo and Fungai Munyoro are currently undertaking the COSAFA Women Leadership Course. The programme runs from July to November 2025, through a series of webinars with various Speakers from COSAFA, CAF and FIFA speaking on functional areas of the Mas. Topics covered include strategy development, club licensing, competitions, safeguarding, safety and security management and marketing. Since the inception of the programme, 10 ladies have graduated from the programme, which include former and present administrators:

Women football administrators have benefited from other COSAFA programmes such as:

The COSAFA women’s club licensing workshop held in June – which had 3 administrators from the top 3 teams in the ZWPSL for season 2024 invited, that is Herentals Queens FC, Black Rhinos Queens FC and Chapungu Queens FC in preparation of the Club Women Champions COSAFA Qualifiers August,2025. The COSAFA Women’s League Development Workshop held in April – Mildred Masvinge the ZWPSL Administrator participated in.

Coaching

In the recently completed CAF C coaching course, which was a first to be conducted since 2017, we have 4 ladies who graduated from the class. It increases our tally of female coaches with the CAF C Diploma to 11 from 7. Through the FIFA Women Football development programme, we will be able to raise that number with classes specifically for female coaches. We are also glad that Irene Mwana graduated in the CAF B Diploma from the Botswana Football Association. It moves our tally to 3 CAF B female coaches in the country, with the CAF courses back on offer in the country we intend to have more female coaches trained

Sport AI

The platform offers a great opportunity to build on the Women Priemer league’s visibility. Five matches have been streamed since the start in matchday 17, mainly matches that have been played in Harare. The initiative has improved match organization standards and created excitement around the possibility of regular streaming of the league matches. The platform is also about understanding audience patterns with data driven insights the league will be able to reach new heights.

Grassroots Engagement in Madziwa

The women football under the technical department partnered with the Girls and Goals, a (non-profit org.) in Madziwa which run a Girls soccer tournament under the theme Cleats, Confidence and Conversations #endchildmarriages. The tournament was hosted at Madziwa Teachers College which had 14 girls’ teams participating in some coming as far as Chimanimani. Girls and Goals use football as a platform to empower girls in rural communities through life skills education programs. Combining play and personal development reinforced football’s role as a tool for positive social change. The initiative addressed one of the main pillars of the strategy to increase participation, the 2-day tournament had 210 players involved. The association donated football to every participating team, with the Mighty Warriors Head Coach in presence to hand them over.

Women’s Football Strategy

The development of the strategy is now in its final stages. From the consultations workshops and online survey an internal key action plan document was developed. The document is a collective vision and a testament of commitment to every girl and woman who loves the game. The document speaks to 5 pillars:

1. Growing participation (growing the competitions on all levels from grassroots up to Elite youth)
2. Showcasing the image (Image, perception, commercialization of the game, sponsorship)
3. Striving for excellence (Talent ID, National team performance, Elite player pathways,Standards for WNT players)
4. Building foundations (Capacity building on all levels, referees, coach education, club support, administrators)
5. Bringing structures (Governance, Policies and Frameworks)

The document has been submitted for Executive Committee review and approval. Steps that follow:

1. Publishing of the strategy document.
2. Launch of the strategy.

Finally, our women’s football strategy consultations were featured in FIFA’s August Women’s Football Newsletter – a recognition of the great work being done.

https://inside.fifa.com/womens-football/news/womens-football-development-activities-august-2025