Standard Bank, the official Banking partner of Kaizer Chiefs, in keeping with the theme of the month of August being woman’s month, invited over a 100 guests on Tuesday afternoon for a luncheon at the Summer Place Complex in Inanda, Sandton.

The bank had decided to lay on the event to honour the contributions of various female football players, administrators and coaches for their contributions to the development of the game in South Africa. Amongst those in attendance were female staff members from a number of PSL clubs, the South African Football Association as well as current and past members of the South African Woman’s Football team.

Outgoing Premier Soccer League director of communications and marketing Ntambi Ravele, along with The Amakhosi’s own brand manager Dara Carroll and Marketing director Jessica Motaung were also in attendance at Tuesday afternoon’s event.

Standard Bank Appreciates

Tuesday’s function was not just to pay tribute to those ladies who are directly involved in football, but incorporated those who are in the background as well.

As Standard Bank group sponsorship division spokes person Andisa Ntsubane explained “At Standard Bank we felt it important to give recognition to all of the ladies who in some way or another play or have played a role in lifting the profile of South African football, in both the men’s and females game. And a lot of the former ladies players who were in attendance on Tuesday did not get the recognition they ought to have gotten during their playing, and we felt that this would be our way of showing our appreciation for their efforts”.

Ntsubane also paid special tribute to the Chiefs Marketing and brand managers as he further added, “As a sponsor of Kaizer Chiefs, we need to deal with the club on a daily basis and working with the likes of Dara and Jessica has always been a pleasure and we look forward to continue working with Chiefs as a club and Dara and Jessica in particular."

Amakhosi praise for Standard Bank

Dara Carroll the Chiefs brand manager was grateful to Standard Bank for arranging for honouring the woman in football with Tuesday’s event, and felt that it was a good thing that they gave special mention to the work of former Banyana Banyana captain Desire Ellis.

“It was a nice gesture on the part of Standard Bank to go through all the trouble to get all of these ladies, who had in some way played a leading role over the years in South African Football together. The opportunity to get to meet old fans was great and it gave people like Desire Ellis the chance to know that everything she did with the woman’s national team over the years was appreciated”.

Furthermore Carroll is happy that woman around the world, not just in South Africa are being recognized for their football achievements.

“Recently in the United States Mia Hamm, one of the all time greatest female players, and her 1999 FIFA Woman’s World Cup winning team mate were inducted into the United States Soccer hall of fame. The fact that they share space in the same museum with the likes of Pele and Ace Ntsolengoe shows that female soccer players are finally getting the recognition they deserve”.