The start of the SAFA National Women’s League has been hailed as a great success after the league got off the ground this weekend.
History was made on Saturday, 24 August, 2019 when the first ball was kicked – but history was further re-written on Sunday when the first ever football match of the league was beamed live on SABC 1 between Mamelodi Sundowns Ladies and Richmond Ladies.
The former won the match 7-0, but at the end of the day football was the winner with several commentators hailing SAFA for keeping good on their promise of starting the League.
There were two other matches earlier in the day when Sasol League National Champions TUT Ladies were trailing 2-0 against First Touch Academy but turned the tables on their opponent and won 4-2, while Golden Ladies were just too good for Thunderbirds, beating them 4-1, where the games took place at the Nike Football Training Centre in Pimville, Soweto on both Saturday and Sunday.
“I would like to thank everyone who made the effort to ensure all goes well.” – SAFA President, Dr Danny Jordaan
President of the South African Football Association (SAFA) Dr Danny Jordaan, who was in attendance over the two days, says this is a good start to something exciting.
“We saw the gap between Sundowns and Richmond Ladies, and you can immediately see that some of these teams don’t have the required facilities, so over time we have to strengthen the playing staff, the management and technical staff of the team and infrastructure. In the meantime, we are centralizing the games so that each team has an equal chance to do well by playing on good surfaces,” he said.
“So you can see it’s a process that we have to go through but I am particularly impressed with the start of the League, as we saw some quality football from some of the teams – this is an exciting way to start this initiative. And I am confident we will grow from strength to strength – we will get to where want to be, the important thing was to start. I would like to thank everyone who made the effort to ensure all goes well,” Dr Jordaan ended
Twenty-three goals have been recorded in just two days of action – with 18 of those coming on Match Day 2. Sundowns were the biggest winners (7-0), followed by Golden Ladies and TUT Ladies. Match Day 1 saw only three goals in three matches – one match failed to produce a winner, the clash between Bloemfontein Celtic Ladies and University of the Western Cape.
SAFA Women’s National League Results:
Saturday, 24 August
Bloemfontein Celtic Ladies 0 – 0 University of the Western Cape
Durban Ladies 0 – 1 Tsunami Queens
University of Johannesburg 0 – 2 Coal City Wizards
Sunday, 25 August
Golden Ladies 4 – 1 Thunderbirds
TUT Ladies Soccer 4 – 2 First Touch Academy
Mamelodi Sundowns Ladies 7 – 0 Richmond United
Fixtures:
Saturday, 7 August 2019
10h00 – University of Johannesburg vs Bloemfontein Celtic
12h30 – TUT vs Coal City Wizards
15h30 – Mamelodi Sundowns Ladies vs Golden Ladies
Sunday, 8 August 2019
10h00 – Thunderbirds Ladies vs Durban Ladies
12h30 – Richmond Ladies vs First Touch Academy
15h30 – Tsunami Queens vs University of Western Cape
Photo 1 Caption: SAFA President Dr Danny Jordaan has been impressed with the results from the opening weekend fixtures of the inaugural SAFA Women’s National League. Photo: SAFA
With editing by gsport