Women's football in Seychelles: A Chat with Angeline Chua, director for development of women’s football and head coach of the women’s national team |04 March 2022

Coach Chua

‘We have to ensure we put the Seychelles national team on the global map of Fifa women’s world ranking’

Q. How long have you been in Seychelles and what have you observed with regard to women’s football in general since you have been here?

1. I have been in Seychelles for 11 months now. It has been a steep learning curve daily, trying to understand the culture here in Seychelles in terms of sports in general and the footballing scene. Practically, there’s limited opportunities for girls and women to play football in Seychelles, in fact there has been no official programme for women’s football for at least 10 years. This is something we are remedying.

Q. How much real interest is there in women's football in Seychelles, from the side of players as well as spectators?

1. I think in general football is popular around the world. You don’t need to be specifically taught about football to know about the game. Football is a game that brings people together. It is a hobby which allows you to have a good time while simultaneously being a healthy activity. If you were to ask a young girl if they would like to play football, they will tell you ‘Yes’ in a shy manner. Therefore, it is important that we can create an environment that girls and women can ‘try playing’ the game if they want to. As for spectators, there will be an unconditional love for supporting your own country and wanting your home team to excel.

Q. What are some of the unique challenges faced by women as opposed to men in this sport globally and in Seychelles specifically?

A. Some unique challenges women face globally are they aren’t given the same level of professionalism in the sport. Such as, the facilities, staff support, salary, and organisation. Furthermore, childbearing is also one of the barriers that needs to have a proper planning, even so it means missing a full year / season with the respective clubs or national team.

Q. How do you think these can be overcome?

A. In Seychelles, women participate in both the household and earning of wages to sustain their family and life. Therefore, it is important to look into the best support we can provide financially as well as flexible schedules to keep women in the game.

Q. How do you think you will increase interest in women's football?

A. Women’s football must go in line with the Seychelles Football Federation’s mission and visions. This is to improve the consistency and stability of the women’s football programme from grassroots, youth football, senior football and eventually professional football. When there’s stability and prospect in this area, it will naturally attract people to want to be part of women’s football.

Q. Does Seychelles have "talent" among the women participating in this sport?

1. Yes, absolutely. Seychelles is unique in a way that children developed themselves based on the infrastructure of the country. Young children can move freely around the island by foot to get to school and going around their district to play with their friends. From the perspective of an outsider, it can be quite dangerous for children to walk on the road, but this actually helped them in terms of making decisions and developed skills such as to cross the road at a young age. It is very relevant to football where you must make decision in complex situations all the time.  

Q. What are the main goals and objectives for women's football in Seychelles?

1. The first goal is to ensure we put the Seychelles women’s national team on the global map of Fifa women’s world ranking so that we can have a reference from there. The ranking is based on points system, therefore it is so important for the team to go out and compete in regional tournaments such as the Women’s African Cup of Nations (Afcon) and Council of Southern African Football Associations (Cosafa). Additionally, to play friendlies with other countries during the Fifa international windows.

The main objective is to put in place a player’s pathway for women’s football in Seychelles. This is to ensure an overall structure from increasing the pool of girls’ participation through grassroots football and youth football that involves all the schools from Mahé, Praslin and La Digue. The senior football would include the post-secondary schools and encouraging more men’s football clubs to set up a women’s team to participate in the domestic women’s league. It is such an important step because it affects the eligibility to qualify for the Confederation of African Football (Caf) Champions League.

Furthermore, to ensure success for the programme we need to encourage more females to be coaches, match officials and administrators to create a sustainable long-term outcome.

Q. What’s next in women’s football?

A. The Seychelles women’s league was supposed to kick off end-January 2022, however it has been postponed due to Covid-19. Nevertheless, we are hoping to get it up and running soon. The game format is set at 9 vs 9. We would like to take this opportunity to invite all the men’s clubs to help with the local women’s football scene and make a team of minimum 9 players to join the league. There will be a winner’s cup, medals and prize money which will give a boost to the clubs overall. For anyone interested on needing more details please do not hesitate to contact me on 2817985 or write an e-mail to dowf@seyfoot.com.

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