Women football league returns in November

The 2021/22 women football league season for both the top flight and second divisions will commence on November 1 and run through April 2, 2022, the football governing body (Ferwafa) has announced. The development comes after various sporting activities, including football, were given green light by the Ministry of Sports to resume. The federation initially informed the women football clubs that the league season would resume on July 31 but later reconsidered the decision following a new spike in covid-19 cases which saw Kigali City and eight districts placed under lockdown as a result. As the women teams finally return to football action, each team that will participate in the top flight league will be given Rwf 3m while teams participating in the second division will receive Rwf 1.5m each to be able to cope with covid-19 preventive activities when the league resumes. Meanwhile, each team will also be able to benefit from the $ 500,000 that Ferwafa, like other FIFA member associations, received to allocate specifically to women’s football under what FIFA called ‘Women’s Football Grant’. The special funding is deemed for the growth, protection and restart of women’s football and to ensure that minimum conditions exist in order to operate despite the impact of the pandemic. Women teams aspiring to participate in either league division have until September 30 to have submitted their application to compete. The teams will now be required to request for permission from Ferwafa to resume training sessions and will only be allowed if each member of their squad presents a covid-19 negative test result every 72 hours. Women football competitions return after over a year and a half hiatus since the covid-19 forced the government to suspend all sporting activities when the first patient was discovered in the country in March last year. The new league season puts an end to women clubs’ hopes of playing the 2020/21 league season which has now been cancelled. Scandinavia are defending champions having won the 2018/19 league title.