10 April 2025 – The South African Football Association (SAFA) has announced that the SA U17 Women’s National Team, Bantwana, will not participate in the upcoming U17 COSAFA Women’s Championship scheduled for Namibia from 10-17 May 2025.
SAFA took this decision in an effort to help the players focus more on their education. The Association has the responsibility of balancing education with football, especially for the younger players. The pool of U17 Women’s National Team players, some of whom are as young as 15 years old, have missed a lot of school since the beginning of the year while attending various preparation camps and also participating in the FIFA U17 World Cup qualifiers.
Bantwana started the year with the FIFA U17 World Cup qualifiers against Gabon, home and away, in January. They were also involved in a training camp in February to help the team prepare for qualifying matches against Nigeria that further took them out of school between 7-16 March 2025. Some of the players were also selected for the Sasol-sponsored Banyana Banyana in February and missed classes from 17-26 February when they played two international friendly games against Lesotho.
The Association is now preparing for the CAF African Schools Football Championship, which will be staged in Ghana, which means more school hours will be missed by the players in the squad in April. As a result, the Association has decided not to enter the team to participate in the COSAFA U17 Championship in May to afford the players an opportunity to catch up with schooling before the mid-year break, noting that their success in school is also as important as playing football.
