Female coaches want more representation in African football
Female head coaches will be a rare sight at the Women’s African Cup of Nations. However, there are some promising signs. When it kicks off
Female head coaches will be a rare sight at the Women’s African Cup of Nations. However, there are some promising signs. When it kicks off in Morocco on July 26, the Women's African Cup of Nations (WAFCON) promises to provide great goals, games and memories as 16 teams compete for the continental title. While the focus will be on the stars on the pitch, there may also be some attention on the fact that very few of the head coaches are female. Cameroon's appointment of Valentine Nguel just weeks before the tournament, brought the number of WAFCON nations with female coaches to four – along with Zambia, Kenya, and South Africa. Still, the vast majority are men. Other teams have appointed female assistants in order to comply with a rule passed by FIFA earlier this year, which requires women's teams to have at least one female coach on the bench. Africa may be moving slowly in the right direction with two head coaches of 12 at the 2025 WAFCON (16.7%) to four of 16 (25%) in 2026, but there is still a long way to go. Desiree Ellis has been named Africa's women's coach of the year four times. Image: Nour Aknajja/Sports Inc/empics/picture alliance South Africa leads the way. Desiree Ellis is one of the world's most successful female coaches and led South Africa to the 2022 title. The four-time African Women's coach of the year would like more countries to follow the example set by hers. Helping female coaches "Our federation took a stand long ago that all female teams will be coached by females," Ellis told DW.
"That needs to happen and federations need to be brave and appoint female coaches. They need to not just appoint them but give them support, otherwise they are not going to succeed." South Africa is one of 14 members of the Council of Southern Africa Football Associations (COSAFA). Even before the FIFA regulation announced in March, this regional organization already had a rule in place making it mandatory for women to form part of the coaching teams. "This is to force federations to provide more opportunities for female coaches, and we can see that in South Africa, it's yielded good dividends," Ellis said. Jackline Juma says female coaches in Africa are not given the same support as their male counterparts get Image: Talanta FC Jackline Juma is head coach of Kenya's U-20 women's team and would like to see something similar set up all over the continent. "We don't have many female coaches in charge of African female teams… It's because they still don't trust women, don't give them chances, the support is not as much as for male coaches," Juma told DW. She believes that such attitudes mean help is needed. "At least, get restrictions when it comes to club licensing so that for female football teams, priority should be given to female coaches as head coaches so this would give us a good number of female coaches rising up." Juma suggests that the first assistant coach should also be female with men allowed to fill out the coaching staff after that. Setting pathways More jobs coupled with role models like Ellis can inspire a new generation of female coaches and Vicky Huyton, who founded the Female Coaching Network in 2014, told DW that while just 20% of female national teams have female coaches, they account for 90% of major championships.
The BriefWire