DR Congo football: big clubs increasingly investing in women's football

A few years ago in the DRC, women's football was of little interest to the country's big clubs. Women's clubs only existed thanks to the goodwill of a handful of benefactors in different parts of the country, such as the late Bob Mundabi in Kinshasa, who was president of FCF Inter. But after his death in 2008, the club collapsed. Other officials then tried to raise the standard of women's football in the country, which still failed to attract interest from the big clubs. But today the picture has changed dramatically. The development of women's football should now move forward in leaps and bounds in the DRC, as the country's big clubs have started to invest in the women's game. In the coming national championships, marquee fixtures like those in the men's game will become more and more common, such as the TP Mazembe v V.club clasico.

Mazembe, the pioneers

Of all the big names in DRC football, it was Tout Puissant Mazembe who were first to launch a women's side. The Lubumbashi club's board created its women's team in September 2020. Well organised, FCF Mazembe were quick to dominate the country. The Lubumbashi club reached the semi-finals of the national championship in 2021 before winning their first national title in 2022. The Corbeaux then won the UNIFFAC zonal tournament and qualified for the 2022 CAF Women's Champions League, becoming the first Congolese club to play in the finals stage of that competition, the most prestigious women's club competition in Africa. FCF Mazembe have also announced the creation of a football academy devoted exclusively to girls from 2024.

Lupopo follow suit

In a competitive environment, the success enjoyed by FCF Mazembe has prompted other clubs from the Congolese Big 5 to set up women's teams. The first to follow was FC Saint Eloi Lupopo, Mazembe's great rivals in Lubumbashi. The Cheminots announced the creation of their women's club in October 2021. Since then, there has been a major Lubumbashi derby, TP Mazembe v Lupopo, in the women's game just as there is in the men's, even if the intensity is not the same. The fixture alone generates great interest among the public, who are gradually getting used to following women's football matches. The two sides met twice in the 2023 national championship, with FCF Mazembe winning both, one of them in the semi-final. Mazembe retained their title while Lupopo finished third in their first participation in the competition. After Lupopo, AS Maniema Union also created a women's team in April 2023. But the Kindu club are still in the middle of building their women's side and were unable to take part in the 2023 national championship.

V.Club and DCMP forced by CAF

While the big Lubumbashi derby already exists in the women's game, the Kinshasa one between DCMP and V.club is still taking shape. That is thanks to CAF. Indeed, Kinshasa's two biggest clubs also announced the creation of their respective women's teams in June 2023. To be honest, they had no choice, as CAF forced them to do it. Having qualified for the interclub competitions of the CAF 2023-2024 season, both clubs had to meet the conditions to obtain their licences. Among those conditions was the requirement to have a women's team. The two Kinshasa giants each had to buy a club playing in the Kinshasa league to comply with this CAF requirement. They now need to build proper structures so they can compete with the country's other leading women's sides. That gives hope for a very high-standard women's national championship in the years ahead.

Masiala Jonathan