Erasmus Shalihaxwe
FNB Women’s Super League champions, Beauties Football Club, are appealing for financial support to participate in the upcoming CAF Women’s Champions League.
The team was drawn in Group B alongside Mamelodi Sundowns Ladies FC (South Africa), Ntopwa FC (Malawi), and Zesco Ndola Girls (Zambia).
The matches will be held in Johannesburg, South Africa, from 22 to 30 August. . The group winner and runner-up will advance to the next phase of the competition, scheduled for November 2025 in Morocco.
Despite receiving N$250 000 for winning the league in May, the club says the amount is insufficient to meet the competition’s requirements.
Club owner and head coach, Salome Iyambo, said Beauties FC currently has no sponsor and relies on individuals to fund operations.
She said running a football club without sponsorship is expensive, even at an amateur level.
“After a long season, you cannot let players go home without giving them something, so the money we received for winning the league went to that. The leftover is what we are currently using for preparations, and it can get depleted at any moment. Any help will boost our preparations and participation in the competition,” Iyambo said.
She said meeting CAF standards includes hiring a licensed coach, having qualified team medics, providing three tracksuits per player, and covering three meals per day.
If the team travels by bus to South Africa, they must also use the same bus for transport to training and matches throughout the tournament.
Iyambo added that they have written to the government requesting assistance with transport and are awaiting a response.
While the Namibia Football Association (NFA) has allowed the team to use its field for training, she noted that the pitch has artificial grass.
“We need to train on natural grass because we are going to play on natural grass at the competition. We have ambitions to go far in this tournament, but we can only perform better if we prepare well with the help of external stakeholders,” she added.
