The Mares’ unsurprising cold homecoming
Mqondisi Dube | Monday August 1, 2022 16:00
After their debut match against Burundi on July 4, the Gaolethoo ‘Ronaldo’ Nkutlwisang’s charges had pocketed a significant number of admirers.
While the Mares won only one out of their five matches at the finals, they still managed to gate crush even into the hearts of the previously unconverted women’s football followers.
The 4-2 win over Burundi on their opening assignment unveiled the massive potential that the local women’s game harboured and set the tone for what could be a sparkling future, depending on how the football authorities react. It was jersey number seven, Refilwe Tholakele who led the new revolution and dominated most of the soccer conversations as she produced performances from the top drawer.
The Mares were just one match away from qualifying for next year’s World Cup in New Zealand and Australia, before Morocco’s cruel intervention in the quarter-finals.
However, the Mares had already made a lasting statement on their debut WAFCON finals and provided glimpses of what the future of Botswana’s women football holds. Lucara Diamond Company, which had already been on board before to encourage the girls during qualification, further pledged P200,000 to the team after the win over Burundi.
A stampede of companies and individuals pledging cash and their support for the team was anticipated to follow. But thereafter, the trail went cold; ice cold. It was now the intermittent talk here and there particularly that the team had not pushed over the line to make the semi-final, which would have guaranteed a World Cup spot.
The team failed to go past Cameroon in a match to determine which country went into an inter-federation play-off for a place at the World Cup. Although fans appeared to be on board, failure to achieve something tangible, other than a brave performance, could have been the straw that broke the camel’s back. The support for the team was clearly waning and there was ample proof of this when the team touched down at the Sir Seretse Khama during the President Day’s holiday.
All the cheers and supposedly all-weather friends were missing with only a low key delegation making the trip to the airport to welcome the team. Since Lucara’s P200,000 pledge, nothing has been forthcoming in the direction of incentives. The team, like many others that perform well but not necessarily deliver silverware, will learn to eat and survive on the plain appreciation of ‘well done and thank you.’ Athletes’ biggest motivation is cash; cheers alone are insufficient and will not feed their families.
It goes back to the issue Sport Lite once discussed on how then we motivate children to pursue sport, particularly the girl child in such an unforgiving environment. Just across the border, Banyana Banyana, who went pound for pound with the Mares on their way to winning the 2022 edition, were rewarded handsomely.
Each player grabbed around R600,000 from the South African Football Association (SAFA) alone. The Mares were not expected to win the tournament, but one thought their displays were enough to at least attract, not necessarily the whole loaf, but even some slices for the team to share. Unfortunately not even crumbs have been forthcoming, as the girls will now rely on sealing individual contracts abroad as their best bet for a ‘ financial thank you’ for their participating in the tournament.
The Mares will learn the hard way that fans are mostly fair weather friends. The relationship is highly fluid and it’s usually the all or nothing approach. There is nothing in between. It is safe to say as fresh as the WAFCON tournament is, the Mares’ brave performance is fast fading into distant memory, as the nation goes about its duties looking for the next hero and heroines in other disciplines.