Simphiwe Dludlu: Women’s football needs equal resources, not just equal pay

Former Banyana Banyana defender Simphiwe Dludlu says the debate around equality in football should focus on providing women with the same resources, opportunities and coverage as men, rather than concentrating solely on pay.

The former international, now a television pundit with SuperSport TV, was speaking at the launch of Matthew Booth’s book, A Game of Two Halves, in Illovo, Johannesburg, on Thursday evening.

Booth raised the issue of inequality in women’s football during the event, where Dludlu was among the guests. The subject has attracted renewed attention over the years because of the substantial difference in earnings between Bafana Bafana and Banyana Banyana players.

After Banyana Banyana won the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (WAFCON) in 2022, South African Football Association (SAFA) president Danny Jordaan said the men’s and women’s teams would receive the same rewards.

“In our commitment to pay parity, we can say Bafana will receive exactly the same as Banyana. The carrots Bafana get, Banyana will also get,” Jordaan was quoted as saying.

Dludlu argued that the wider conditions in which players operate must be addressed if women’s football is to develop.

“Let’s have an objective conversation, because a lot of the times it’s subjective because of feelings. People say, ‘Women don’t deserve this. Women are not doing it’, but you are comparing a man and a woman, and you’re forgetting the effort and the sacrifice that the two are bringing,” she said.

“Everybody brings in effort. And the women’s game is a lot behind… I think the conversation is that we are not fighting for equal pay; we are fighting for equal resources, equal opportunities, and equal coverage.

“When you place 10 rands for the men’s game, we are expecting you not to put one rand for the women’s game, because how is women’s football going to get to the top? Now the question we always get is that, but you want equal pay, yet you don’t pull numbers.”

Dludlu said women players also had a responsibility to perform and attract greater interest, but believed the football authorities and wider industry had to provide meaningful support.

“So it’s for us as women to show up, but it’s for somebody to meet us, not even halfway, but to come where we are and pull us up.

“I’m saying if you are putting a Bafana Bafana player in a five-star hotel, you can’t put me in a lodge that is zero-star, because you are setting me back. There’s noise there; there are people that are coming into the hotel, disturbing the team and the players.

“If you are giving the men a five-course meal, why are you giving me a 2.5-course meal, yet I’m supposed to perform? Give me a five-meal course as well.

“It might be that we are not bringing the same numbers, but how am I going to bring the same numbers if I’m not invested in to get to that level? It will never be the same.

“So it’s far from the paycheck, but there’s a lot of other things that will help us to see that there’s progress.”