Police Ladies Football Club is on a mission. A mission to give a more feminine touch to the technical line up of teams in the Ghana Women’s Premier League.
While women’s football has made significant strides lately, the technical teams of clubs are still dominated by me. There are 20 Ghana women Premier League clubs and all 20 coaches, are men. That is the story of the Ghana Women Premier League.
When Dora Zutah left Berry Ladies recently, it meant none of the sides in the top division in Women’s football in Ghana is coached by a woman.
The Ghana Women’s League has consistently provided growth opportunities for both players and staff involved with the teams. The Girls are able to express themselves by exploring the many avenues available especially playing, coaching, content creation and many others.
However, the faces at the helm of affairs and what the league must represent are miles apart as there are no female head coach in the ongoing league.
Speaking to Akosua Adjei on 3Sports’ special International Women’s Day celebration, Police Ladies Assistant Coach Nana Ama Asantewaa expressed major concern of many women in the space. “Even though the men dominate the space, I think they authorities can attach the women to them so that we can learn and with time deliver for the nation”, Nana Ama said.
Police Ladies are working a project designed to give as many women as possible a place on the technical team and fade out male technical team members. For Coach Abu Kassim having his former players as technical team members adds more advantage. Coach Kassim said, “It’s always a blessing to have ex-players transition into the technical arena. It gives them better advantage compared to those who have never played before. Having them as exceptional ex footballers coaching under me is a plus and a very big advantage for me and my team.
Fafali Dumehasi a former national goalkeeper who is now signed unto Police Ladies as goalkeeper’s trainer says it is hugely important for the players to see women in leadership roles on their benches. “Female officials are very important in women football. It helps the women to understand that they can talk to us about anything because sometimes, the girls are shy to discuss personal issues with the men but they feel comfortable to talk to a woman”.
For the new assistant and goalkeepers’ trainers, their long-held aspiration has been to join the technical team of Police Ladies. However, they are concerned about the significant number of women who are not practicing with their coaching licenses. According to Nana Ama, if more women join the technical bench of teams in the Women’s Premier League it will help in progressing the game”.
The women say combining a rise up the ranks of the technical teams debunking rumors of the sexuality of female players. “The players are getting married now. There were lots of rumors surrounding our sexuality people even thought we didn’t like men. But we were on our own because we didn’t want to get pregnant or be distracted from our career. We were just protecting our careers” Fafali said.
But that is not stopping them from dreaming Nana Ama Asantewaa for instance wants to be a national coach soon.
She says her aim is to be national team coach one day.
May be if more clubs adopt the Police Ladies approach, then the dream of ex-players like Nana Ama would be closer than ever.
BY: AKOSUA ADJEI
