Female coaches want more representation in African football

When it kicks off in Morocco on July 26, the Women’s African Cup of Nations (WAFCON) promises to provide great goals, games and memories as 16 teams compete for the continental title. While the focus will be on the stars on the pitch, there may also be some attention on the fact that very few of the head coaches are female. 

Cameroon‘s appointment of Valentine Nguel just weeks before the tournament, brought the number of WAFCON nations with female coaches to four – along with Zambia, Kenya, and South Africa. Still, the vast majority are men. Other teams have appointed female assistants in order to comply with a rule passed by FIFA earlier this year, which requires women’s teams to have at least one female coach on the bench.

Africa may be moving slowly in the right direction with two head coaches of 12 at the 2025 WAFCON (16.7%) to four of 16 (25%) in 2026, but there is still a long way to go.

South Africa leads the way. Desiree Ellis is one of the world’s most successful female coaches and led South Africa to the 2022 title. The four-time African Women’s coach of the year would like more countries to follow the example set by hers.

Helping female coaches

“Our federation took a stand long ago that all female teams will be coached by females,” Ellis told DW.

“That needs to happen and federations need to be brave and appoint female coaches. They need to not just appoint them but give them support, otherwise they are not going to succeed.” 

South Africa is one of 14 members of the Council of Southern Africa Football Associations (COSAFA). Even before the FIFA regulation announced in March, this regional organization already had a rule in place making it mandatory for women to form part of the coaching teams.

“This is to force federations to provide more opportunities for female coaches, and we can see that in South Africa, it’s yielded good dividends,” Ellis said. 

Jackline Juma is head coach of Kenya’s U-20 women’s team and would like to see something similar set up all over the continent.

“We don’t have many female coaches in charge of African female teams… It’s because they still don’t trust women, don’t give them chances, the support is not as much as for male coaches,” Juma told DW.

She believes that such attitudes mean help is needed. 

“At least, get restrictions when it comes to club licensing so that for female football teams, priority should be given to female coaches as head coaches so this would give us a good number of female coaches rising up.” 

Juma suggests that the first assistant coach should also be female with men allowed to fill out the coaching staff after that. 

Setting pathways

More jobs coupled with role models like Ellis can inspire a new generation of female coaches and Vicky Huyton, who founded the Female Coaching Network in 2014, told DW that while just 20% of female national teams have female coaches, they account for 90% of major championships.

Inspiring young girls is, however, just the beginning of what can be a long and difficult journey to the upper reaches of the sport. While there are some countries that have made strides, some federations still have much to do in this field to enable coaches to reach their full potential.

“I am contacted quite often by amazing female coaches in Africa –various countries, Uganda, Kenya, Nigeria.”  Huyton told DW.

“Often they say ‘I have a passion, I have a want but I have nowhere to go.’”

Huyton would like to see a clear pathway in place for all young coaches.

“They don’t know how to take that route and that’s not necessarily the coach’s fault, that’s the federation or governing body who aren’t reaching out to these women and saying ‘if you want to be national team coach, this is what you have to do.’ I honestly think that in some sports even the governing bodies don’t know how to get them there.”

Huyton admits that all around the world there is a long way still to go but that there is a fundamental lesson that Africa can learn from Europe.

“From a level-one grassroots coach volunteering once a week, what does that pathway look like to go all the way to a national team coach?” she asked.

“It’s really important to understand what the journey looks like. People think that women don’t want to coach…it isn’t true.”

Reasons for optimism

The lack of representation at the top level is not confined to Africa. Men are a common sight on the benches of women’s games all over the world, including Europe. At the Women’s Euro 2025, just seven of the 16 teams had female coaches, an increase from past tournaments but still fewer than half.  

England’s national team may be European champions and led by a woman, but female coaches are still a minority in the country’s Women’s Super League, regarded by most as the strongest domestic competition in the world.

In Africa, progress is being made and while it is slower than many would like in terms of women rising to senior positions, there are reasons to be optimistic, according to Ellis. 

“Now, you have Lamia [Boumehdi] who has just won CAF (Confederation of African Football) coach of the year, being appointed as U20 coach of Morocco,” Ellis said.

“You have Adelaide [Koudougnon] qualifying Ivory Coast for the first time to the U17 tournament, you have Carol [Kanyemba] of Zambia going to back-to-back World Cups with the U17s, you have Mildred [Cheche] going to the U17 World Cup with Kenya. There are a lot of future coaches coming up.”

Edited by: Chuck Penfold