E700 000 FOR WOMEN FOOTBALL FROM FIFA

MBABANE – FIFA would be doubling its funding for women football for the next four years.

This is in line with the development of the sport in the women sector which has been mapped out by FIFA.
FIFA, on its website on September 12, said it is set to double its development funding for women’s football for the next four-year cycle and has this month released the FIFA Women’s Football Development Programmes and Guidelines 2015-2018 as part of the preparations.

National Football Association of Swaziland (NFAS) CEO Frederick Mngomezulu received such news with elation despite stating that they had not been briefed officially on this matter. “For now nothing official has been communicated by to us by FIFA. However, any increase (in the grant) pleases us as we have to create a lot of awareness in terms of women’s football and draw other women, especially girls, to the sport,” he stated.

Currently, FIFA gives the NFAS US$34 000 per year for women’s football, released in quarterly grants of US$8 500, hence a double increase of such an amount would see the association getting US$68 000 per year for this sector, which would convert to about E700 000.
He said the grant was utilised to cater for all expenses related to women’s football, including a tournament, the league, payment of referees, venues, courses, as well as paying allowances to the executive committee.

Meanwhile, the guidelines provide all 209 member associations (MAs) with the necessary information to apply for and benefit from FIFA’s women’s football development programmes for 2015-2018. They have been developed based on feedback from member associations and confederations as well as players, coaches, referees and officials who participated in the 2011-2014 programmes.

In total, there are nine different types of programmes for MAs to choose from, focusing on four main areas of football development – competitions, management, education and promotion.  This includes the Live Your Goals campaign launched in 2011 to inspire more young girls and women to get involved in football. The new guidelines also outline FIFA’s 10 key development principles for women’s football, which were defined by the FIFA Task Force for Women’s Football and approved by the 64th FIFA Congress on 11 June 2014.

Additionally, MAs have another useful resource in the form of the new brochure titled Women’s Football: Progression, Rise and Challenges published recently on FIFA.com. MAs can submit applications to the FIFA Development Office in their respective region on a yearly basis by mid-October.

A standard budget request and financial report form have been created to ensure financial transparency – an important aspect for FIFA-funded programmes in line with the General Regulations for FIFA Development Programmes that came into force in July 2013.
FIFA expects and helps its member associations and the confederations to support and develop women’s football.

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