Sundowns to Turkey, and beyond: Morifi has plans to lift women’s football

Former Mamelodi Sundowns Ladies midfielder Chuene Morifi wants to become a sporting director in women’s football and aims to tackle the immense challenges the female sport faces.

Morifi's perspective is shaped by the realities of having played at the top level in a country where women's sports face challenges such as limited development and financial support. There is only one semi-professional football league for women in South Africa, the Hollywoodbets Super League, which was established in 2019.   

The 33-year-old midfielder joined the Brazilians in 2017 and quickly made her mark, contributing to Downs’ success as they were crowned champions and named team of the year in the 2020-21 Hollywoodbets season and then becoming back-to-back champions, dominating the league. She also shone in the Caf Women’s Champions League, showcasing her talent on a grand stage.   

She was voted the 2023 Safa Women's League fans player of the season and with her impressive performances extend to the Cosafa Caf Women’s Champions League qualifiers, she attracted attention from European clubs. Last month she signed a one-year contract with Beylerbeyi Spor Kulübü in Istanbul, Turkey.   

Morifi explained to TimesLIVE Premium she is taking the necessary steps to adapt to her new life in Turkey.   

“Beylerbeyi is a beautiful city with warm people and the club has been taking good care of me,” she said.     

“The only challenge is the language barrier, but I am adapting. I took a Turkish language course with the club to help me with communication and I’m getting familiar with the environment. And one of my teammates, Elena Santos, is from South Africa so she helps me with translation whenever she can.”    

They just see the talent and sign the player but you need to know the strengths and weaknesses of the player you are signing so you know what you are working with and if that player can fit into your team.

—  Chuene Morifi

Morifi said the opportunity to wind down her career abroad will steer her in the right direction and give her experience of how things are done at international professional level.

“It means growth, lots of improvement, lots of expectations and pressure to perform at an international level as a professional. I will grab this opportunity with both hands, enjoy and explore Europe, [the] experience, the different culture, and learn new languages,” she said.

She knows she has limited playing time left and, coupled with her studies, already is formulating plans on how to put that experience to use in an administrative or technical role lifting South African women's football.

“There's still a long way to go but from a talent point of view, we have a lot. However, resources are needed to develop the talent to compete at a higher level.

“The fact that our league is not yet professional makes things difficult for its clubs to sustain themselves without the much-needed financial support.   

“At the moment I am studying and doing a diploma in Data Analytics, Scouting and Performance Analysis — and I'm planning to get into the MBA Sporting Directorship qualification in the near future.  

“One of the reasons I want to get into the space of scouting and directorship is because I know where women's football lacks and I want to try to contribute to filling that gap. Most of the women's teams are cut and paste from how things are run with men's teams, which should not be the case.   

“Women's football is way different from the men's game and it should be run differently.

“From scouting and analysis, I don't think there's enough profiling of players when teams identify a talent. They just see the talent and sign the player, but you need to know the strengths and weaknesses of the player you are signing, so you know what you are working with and if that player can fit into your team.”

Savvy, well-qualified former Banyana stars Amanda Dlamini, in a stint as a senior manager at Safa, and Safa CEO Lydia Monyepao have directed themselves into influential administrative roles in the country. Listening to her talk, Morifi seems set to follow in their footsteps.