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Helping female coaches

"Our federation took a stand long ago that all female teams will be coached by females," Ellis told DW.

"That needs to happen and federations need to be brave and appoint female coaches. They need to not just appoint them but give them support, otherwise they are not going to succeed."

South Africa leads the way. Desiree Ellis is one of the world's most successful female coaches and led South Africa to the 2022 title. The four-time African Women’s coach of the year would like more countries to follow the example set by hers.

Setting pathways

More jobs coupled with role models like Ellis can inspire a new generation of female coaches and Vicky Huyton, who founded the Female Coaching Network in 2014, told DW that while just 20% of female national teams have female coaches, they account for 90% of major championships.

"At least, get restrictions when it comes to club licensing so that for female football teams, priority should be given to female coaches as head coaches so this would give us a good number of female coaches rising up."

Juma suggests that the first assistant coach should also be female with men allowed to fill out the coaching staff after that.

Reasons for optimism

The lack of representation at the top level is not confined to Africa. Men are a common sight on the benches of women's games all over the world, including Europe. At the Women’s Euro 2025, just seven of the 16 teams had female coaches, an increase from past tournaments but still fewer than half.

England's national team may be European champions and led by a woman, but female coaches are still a minority in the country's Women's Super League, regarded by most as the strongest domestic competition in the world.

In Africa, progress is being made and while it is slower than many would like in terms of women rising to senior positions, there are reasons to be optimistic, according to Ellis.

"Now, you have Lamia [Boumehdi] who has just won CAF (Confederation of African Football) coach of the year, being appointed as U20 coach of Morocco," Ellis said.

You have Adelaide [Koudougnon] qualifying Ivory Coast for the first time to the U17 tournament, you have Carol [Kanyemba] of Zambia going to back-to-back World Cups with the U17s, you have Mildred [Cheche] going to the U17 World Cup with Kenya. There are a lot of future coaches coming up.

Edited by: Chuck Penfold [/END_OF_TEXT]