Banyana Banyana’s 2022 WAFCON final victory, watched by more than 50,000 fans packed into the Prince Moulay Abdellah Stadium in Rabat, remains the clearest proof of what women’s football on the continent can deliver. South Africa defeated Morocco 2-1 in front of a record crowd. The atmosphere was electric. The stands were full. That night has not been repeated.
The most recent WAFCON, hosted by Morocco, returned the tournament to a more familiar pattern. Matches involving the host nation drew capacity crowds, but games featuring other strong sides, including South Africa and Nigeria, played out in largely empty stadiums. Officials and coaches pointed to a lack of visible promotion in host cities and the high cost of intra-African travel as the main barriers to travelling support. The contrast with that 2022 final is not subtle. It demonstrates what becomes possible when conditions align, and how rarely those conditions are deliberately created.
Additional reference context is available at https://mg.co.za/2026-07-28-the-empty-stands-of-wafcon-showcases-neglect-for-women-s-football-in-south-africa/.
The structural imbalance in South Africa cuts particularly deep. Government bonuses, sponsorship visibility and administrative priority have repeatedly favoured Bafana Bafana, while Banyana Banyana continues to operate under resource constraints their male counterparts would find unacceptable. Historical reports and parliamentary discussions have long documented lower funding for the women’s league and national team relative to men’s structures, despite Banyana’s consistent competitive results and their role-model status for young girls across the country.
For decades, players and coaches have spoken openly about the struggle for basic professional conditions. The result is a self-reinforcing cycle: limited visibility leads to lower attendance and weaker sponsorship interest, which in turn justifies further under-investment. Breaking that cycle requires deliberate policy choices, not occasional bursts of goodwill after a tournament success.
Comparisons with other continental competitions make the shortfall unmistakable. UEFA Women’s Euro 2025 in Switzerland set a new aggregate attendance record of 657,291 across 31 matches, averaging more than 21,000 spectators per game. Group-stage fixtures frequently sold out. Even matches not involving the hosts drew strong crowds. Earlier editions in England and the Netherlands produced similar results once infrastructure, marketing and broadcasting were treated as priorities rather than afterthoughts. In those environments, women’s continental football is increasingly regarded as a mainstream product capable of filling major stadiums.
Africa’s geography and economic realities present genuine challenges. Travel costs, ticket pricing and limited local promotion are real and significant obstacles. They are not, however, insurmountable. The 2022 WAFCON final proved that African fans will respond when an event feels accessible and important. Consistent full houses for host-nation matches confirm that local engagement is achievable. What is missing is systematic effort: better scheduling that avoids clashes with other major tournaments, aggressive grassroots marketing, affordable ticketing strategies and genuine investment by federations and governments in the women’s game year-round, not only during finals.
Media coverage remains inconsistent outside major tournaments, and commercial partners continue to treat the women’s game as secondary. Development pathways stay under-resourced. As documented at mg.co.za, the pattern reflects broader failures to back women’s football with the resources and respect it has earned.
For South Africa, the stakes are both sporting and social. Banyana Banyana have repeatedly demonstrated excellence despite the odds. Continued neglect sends a clear message about whose achievements matter to those in power. Equalising support in finance, logistics and culture between Banyana and Bafana is not merely a matter of fairness. It is an investment in the future of the sport and in the visibility of women athletes. Continental organisers must treat WAFCON with the same seriousness afforded to the men’s Africa Cup of Nations: proper venues, coordinated promotion, television coverage and a refusal to accept empty stands as inevitable.
Until governments, federations, leagues, broadcasters and sponsors match the commitment shown by the players themselves, the question worth asking is whether the system surrounding women’s football is designed to let them succeed, or simply to tolerate their success when it arrives anyway.