Côte d'Ivoire has been vibrating to the rhythm of soccer for almost a month, with a third star hanging from the orange jersey, but women's soccer continues to suffer.
Côte d'Ivoire hosted the AFCON 2023 from January 13 to February 11, 2024. Two days before the climax, the CAF president held a press conference to praise the host country's achievements in hosting the competition. Paradoxically, not all is rosy for women's soccer in Drogba's homeland. On the sidelines of a UN meeting on violence against women and sexism, held in Abidjan on February 8, 2024, the goalkeeper of the Ivorian national women's soccer team took to the podium. She seized the opportunity to voice her displeasure. And to denounce the inhumane treatment of girls. Some of them followed her on television.
"The matches are played at 10am GMT, which means we're not considered. We're tired of it all. We go to play for the country, we come back, it's zero. You play a 90-minute match, you finish, you get 3 or 4 euros. (...) After a UFOA-B tournament we took part in with Côte d'Ivoire, we got to the final and lost. When we finished, we were given 15 euros as a match bonus", Cynthia Djohoré chokes out.
However, the Atletico d'Abidjan and Côte d'Ivoire goalkeeper doesn't stop there and yet," she says, "we've played 5 matches. We went to play in the World Cup, they counted us on the plane and gave us 15 euros. Then they tell us to go home. The league schedule is not respected.(...) Everyone says I've put on weight, yes! If I'm paid well, I'll watch what I eat. For the moment, I eat what I've got. (...) We've been champions twice in succession, but we haven't had any trophies, medals or envelopes. We're champions in our mouths", spat Cynthia Djohoré.
"We have licenses, but it says amateur on them.We're suffering.You finish a competition like the 2015 World Cup and you go home with 7 or 15 euros as a transport allowance.We've been through and we're still going through inhuman things," denounces the player who now plays for Stella Club d'Adjamé.
Some progress, but not much
Since the arrival of the new Executive Committee headed by Idriss Diallo, the Ivorian Football Federation has improved things for women's soccer. The subsidy has risen from 3810 euros to 15243 euros. Better still, while there is no salary for female players, FIF has imposed a daily bonus of 3 euros, equivalent to 91.5 euros per month. But the women's footballers consider this step forward to be insignificant."Can we get by on that? Even the little things we're asked to do, like make-up, extensions, dresses, to be more flirtatious, cost more than that," says Tia Inès, a former Ivorian women's D1 player and recent Asian Club Champion with Hyundai Angels in South Korea.
Hope for all these players now seems to lie in the words of the CAF President."We have doubled the amount allocated to the federations, this money must go towards the development of soccer...", promised Patrice Motsepe, on the sidelines of the AFCON 2023 Review Press Conference on February 9, 2024 in Abidjan.
