20 Jan 2025

Jwaneng Galaxy women’s team delivered a convincing win in the Jwaneng Mine Southern Region Women’s Football League opening match on Saturday against Tholo Peace Masters of Goodhope by thrashing them 20-0.

Led by former senior women’s national team, The Mares coach, Gaolethoo ‘Ronaldo’ Nkutlwisang, Galaxy started the game looking to score big.

“Tholo Peace Masters is a new team. I cannot say much about them because they are rookies in the league and are yet to grow. Meanwhile, I used this match to introduce new players and I am quite happy that they performed well and fitted well into the team structure,” Nkutlwisang said.

She said the game was also used to test players’ prowess and to check which areas needed reinforcement on the pitch.

“We still need more players to beef up the team. Our ambition is to win the DTCB championship and so we have started working towards achieving our goal of competing against the best women football teams in the country,” she noted.

For his part, Tholo Peace Masters coach, Kaelo Kethubilwe said the team was formed last year and this was their debut game in the Southern Region Women Football League.

“The results were not pleasing but I am happy that we were able to honour the fixture. The players were playing for the first time in the league and so it was a new experience for them. We have seen areas where we need to improve in our very first game and we are hopeful that we will do better next time,” he said.

He said the 20-0 margin was a devastating loss for the women.

“We will deal with this set back, their emotions and apply psychological therapy to avoid them loosing hope. We will come better prepared next time,” he said.

In an interview, Southern Region Women’s Football League committee secretary, Keemenao Mmolawa said the league was being sponsored by the Jwaneng Mine to the tune of P900 000 since February 2022 for three seasons.

The last season is coming to an end and they are keeping their fingers crossed for the renewal of the sponsorship, which has greatly assisted them to administer the league.

The league, she noted, featured 11 women teams in the region, namely, Jwaneng Galaxy, Extension Gunners, Zodiac Collabo Girls, Gangwaketse, 11 Queens, Maletamotse FC, Moshupa New Stars FC, Tholo Peace Masters amongst others. She said the league would come to an end in April, and the champion will get P15 000.

The team, which comes second will get P12 500 while the third placed team will be rewarded with P10 000 and the one on position four will get P7 500. The rest of the remaining teams will get P5 000 each.

She said during the league, each team was entitled to get P8 600 grant to facilitate teams to sustain themselves during the league season, adding that last year Zodiac Collabo Girls were the champions.

Meanwhile, she said Botswana Football Association also assisted the women football champions with finances to enable them to compete at high-level tournaments such as the DTCB as part of encouraging women to participate in football. ENDS