The University of the Free State’s (UFS) women’s football team is faced with a tall order in the ambitious bid to secure promotion to South Africa’s senior league.
The club’s players and technical team, led by coach Jabulile Baloyi, is compelled to strike a balancing act in preparing for their university exam finals while securing promotion to the Sasol Women’s League national final.
This year’s national promotional final is pencilled in to take place from 15 to 20 October at the Knysna’s Loerie Park Sports Grounds in the Western Cape. Only two of the nine women’s teams will be promoted to the country’s senior division, the Hollywoodbets Super League.
The stakes are high for the Free State’s reigning champions, who are bound to go beyond their limit, to ensure they win all the matches to finish as one of the top two teams.
“We are hoping to push ourselves to the final in our first attempt. Because our team is mostly made up of students, this is a tough assignment. We have to ensure we do not compromise the players’ education as part of preparing to compete and gain promotion at the upcoming national tournament,” said Baloyi.
“We have to ensure all critical areas are looked after properly. The balancing act is to ensure we have a team of players who perform in the field of play and also do well in their tertiary studies.”
Baloyi becomes the UFS’ first female coach to lead the institution’s women’s outfit to the national promotion final of the competition, first put together in 2009. It was established as South Africa’s semiprofessional women’s football league.
The purpose of the league is to grow and develop women’s football in all nine provinces.
Baloyi’s charges are compelled to win three crucial matches – two in the group stage and one in the semifinal – to realise their dream of advancing to the country’s senior league, which features 16 teams.
The Kovsie team will be striving for promotion to fill the vacuum that followed when the Qwaqwa-based side, Tsunami Queens, was relegated from the Super League at the end of 2022, along with the sale of the Bloemfontein Celtic women’s team franchise.
The draw for the upcoming tournament was conducted on Thursday, 26 September, pitting the Kovsies against the North-West University (NWU) and the Northern Cape’s Royal Wizards in the group stage elimination matches.
The winner automatically advances to the semifinals, with the winners thereof promoted to the women’s top league.
