13 Jun 2022

Women football teams were left in a frenzy when the inaugural Top 8 Championship sponsor, Diamond Trading Company Botswana (DTCB), announced increased monies contrary to what was initially stated.

The pleasant surprise resulted in overwhelming emotions for both players and administrators on Sunday.

 The new development saw the inaugural champions, Double Action, pocketing P250 000 instead of P25 000.

Mexican Girls won P150 000 instead of P15 000 after finishing second, while Royal Fighters which finished on position three were surprised with P100 000 instead of the initial P10 000.

The competition, which commenced on Friday ended on Sunday.

The tournament saw display of good football and  the prize giving event was a sherry on top of cake.Asked as to what motivated the sudden change in prize money, DTCB managing director, Sedireng Serumola, said the organisation was impressed by the tournament and there seemed to be a lot of work behind the scenes.

“I am going to be brutally honest, I think as we were preparing for the tournament, we did not look at the prize money properly, but if you look at the women football journey, I think they deserved better as teams and I am happy our superiors listened to us when we made changes,” he said.

He said women football required more support and players lacked resources such as playing boots and kits.

“But I am pleading with Batswana, businesses and private sector to support women football because it has a huge potential, “he said.

Serumula appealed to women on playing age to consider using football as a vehicle to create a career path for themselves.

“To be honest it has been such a humbling experience and as DTCB we thank all the stakeholders who were involved in the delivery of the inaugural tournament,” he saidHe said the event was just the beginning and urged all those involved to go back and retrospect  to improve where necessary.

The mouth-watering finals saw Double Action defeating  Mexican Girls 4-2.

In the losers final, Francistown United and Royal Fighters game went to penalty shoot-out after the two sides finished goalless in the regulation time.

However, it was Royal Fighters who were clinical in taking their penalties as they won 5-4 to win the third spot.

Meanwhile, Mexican Girls player, Segakolodi Didukanyane, won the player of tournament award while the goalkeeper of the tournament went to Bame Mokime of Double Action.

Double Action’s Masego Mfandiso emerged the tournament top goal scorer with 17 goals in five games.They were all awarded Woolworths vouchers worth P700. ENDS