Women's football: A performance to capitalize upon

The Indomitable Lionesses have proved that women’s football needs to be capitalize upon and supported due to their brilliant performance before their knockout at the Women’s 2015 World Cup in Canada.

"We just hope that based on our performance, many things will change in Cameroon and Africa," said Enow Ngachu, Cameroon national coach after the match against China. So far marginalized, sometimes despised and treated as an appendage to the men, women's football has the opportunity to takeoff in effect.

Since the gold medal at the All Africa Games in 2011 and the participation in the Olympic Games in London, the Lionesses were in the limelight the following year. This was another spotlight at the final of the Africa Cup of Nations 2014 losing to Nigeria.

It is with hope that the light will continue to shine after the World Cup in Canada because, until now, very few people actually take football matches of women seriously.

The image of women's football in Cameroon has experienced a real boost with these players who had played together for years. One can use the trails and defense of Gabrielle Aboudi Onguene or technique and sense of drive of Gaëlle Enganamouit during the matches they played. Yet it is this interest that would attract spectators to the stadiums and entice more sponsors.

This means that there should be an interest in developing it so that players can finally find pride in their art. This requires the establishment of clubs, coaching for the existing ones and the creation of a specialized League, following the example of the Ligue 1 with the male category.

In Cameroon we have 1,600 licensed referees, 15 central referees, 4 internationals central referees, 25 assistants and 4 internationals assistants, according to FECAFOOT. Also, annual financial assistance of such competitions by the International Federation of Football Association as part of its development program could be of help.

It is also hopeful that a better supervision will improve on the performance of the team to boost their confidence. "Preparation of a team is essential. We have realized that this has been detrimental to Cameroon for some time. Hopefully, this will be a lesson for the future,” an observer desired.

This is clearly an opportunity to work on the actual problems and starting from the scratch to solve them on new terms. For better future results, we have to invest. Cameroon can be a nation that is recognized in the world of women's football. The talent is there. That is undeniable.

"The day we prepare and organize ourselves optimally, I think that an African nation will be able to win the World Cup," said Enow Ngachu.

The most urgent challenges await the team already. They are the 2016 Olympics qualifiers in July and African Games in Brazzaville in September 2015. Not forgetting the Africa Nations Cup which they will host in 2016.

The Indomitable Lionesses now have a status to defend. This is to preserve the country’s honour and more importantly, for the future of women's football.