After finishing second in the continent at the sixth CAF African Women's Championships held in Equatorial Guinea in November 2008, Banyana Banyana is the only African team that has been invited to participate in the tournament. The seven other countries are Canada, England, France, Netherlands, Russia, Scotland and New Zealand.
Banyana Banyana has been grouped with England, Scotland and France in the round robin phase of the tournament between Thursday 5th March and Tuesday 10th of March. On Thursday, 12th of March, the play offs for positions two to four, as well as the group winners, who will battle in the final to determine the tournament champions.
Team Manager, Fran Hilton-Smith says: “This is probably the toughest tournament outside the World Cup that we will participate in, because all the world's best countries will be there. This is a tournament that will benefit Banyana Banyana immensely given that we are using this tournament to start our preparations for the 2011 FIFA World Cup qualifiers.
“We are taking four players from our Under 20's with us, whom we believe will rise to the occasion. We know that it is going to be a difficult tournament, but we believe that we will manage to earn our respect during this competition, as we will have our African Player of The Year, Noko Matlou with us. All this would not have been possible had it not been for the vision of the South African Football Association and the commendable sponsorship of SASOL, who have now come on board as sponsors of Banyana Banyana and women's football,” says Hilton-Smith. The Team departs this Sunday 1 March.
Also underway this weekend, is the Sasol Women's League which commences on Friday, 27 February 2009 and runs until early August. The spotlight will be on the Gauteng games this weekend, starting with a road show in Mamelodi on Friday afternoon and a full day of soccer activities at Muckleneuk Sports Grounds in Mamelodi on Saturday.
On Saturday the programme will include National Team coach, Augustine Makalakalane sharing his skills and information with the 16 coaches of all the clubs from Gauteng participating in the Sasol League. Players will also be able to demonstrate their skills to Coach Augustine and his selectors, in an assessment session early on the Saturday, for potential selection to the National Team.
The afternoon will see two fixtures taking place featuring Alexandra FC v Mamelodi Sundowns FC at 1pm and Luso Africa and Palace Super Falcon at 3pm. Banyana Banyana players will take time from the camp to attend the Mamelodi kick off of the tournament.Over the next five months, together with SAFA, Sasol will be visiting the remaining eight provinces to roll out the same campaign countrywide.
The Sasol League will culminate in a national final play off, to be played during the last week of August in celebration of Women's Month. At the end of the League, the log leaders of each of the nine provinces will come together to play in the week-long National Final play off, to determine who will be crowned inaugural champions of the Sasol League.
