The shining performances put up by the young ladies in the ongoing FIFA Under 20 Women’s Cup in Germany show that football has clearly ceased to be a man’s game. The ladies game may not be as physical like the men’s for obvious reasons, but their excellent skills depict a bright future for the women’s game.

It is worthy of note that out of the 16 nations assembled in Germany, only four; Costa Rica, Colombia, Sweden and New Zealand were  absent from the just ended FIFA World Cup in South Africa. This is a clear indication that women’s football is being taken seriously worldwide.

Ghana, South Korea, USA, Switzerland, Mexico, England, Nigeria, Japan, Brazil, Germany, France and North Korea who all made their presence felt in South Africa 2010 are represented in Germany by their youthful ladies. Sepp Blatter must be happy that football is spreading that wide which may give him the impetus to entrench his stay in office.

I must confess I was one of the many male chauvinists who hated the idea of women playing football.  I held the belief that the legs of women were so tender that it would be cruel to deface it with those hard studs under the boots not to mention the really sensitive nature of their breasts and the amount of   attention they pay to keep their hair attractive.

Well I have been proved wrong. The ladies don’t seem to care much about their legs and even though one can’t see them using their chests much in the game, they throw caution to the wind and head the ball all right damn the hairdressers’ bill.

From all indications, women’s football has come to stay and it may not be long when women footballers will also attract the huge bucks being paid to their male counterparts. This should be possible since all the top football crazy nations like Brazil, Germany, England, France, Ghana, Nigeria, Japan and Mexico don’t want to be found wanting when women’s football is mentioned.

Talking about women’s football reminds me of the wonderful return to women’s athletics of my idol Caster Semanya. The South African 800 metres world champion has been inactive for almost a year due to what, to my mind, was an unnecessary furore over his gender.  It is healthy that tests have proved she is just an extraordinarily strong woman and nothing else.

In my self appointed capacity as chairman of Caster Semanya Fan Club, I say a big welcome back to the tracks to the young lady. It is good news that she has been able to overcome all the negative publicity and back to her winning ways.  Even though she excelled in her first outing at the Lappeenranta Games in Finland she said she felt a bit nervous.

If you thought it was the bad publicity that made her nervous you got it wrong. Hear her “I felt a bit nervous because it has been a long time not competing. It’s a new beginning.”

The strong willed lady of the track is back and she says her target is the October Commonwealth Games in Dehli. Check her out. It will be a great come back. I will soon start mobilizing support from members of the Fan Club to cheer her up at the Commonwealth Games.

Cheers everybody and keep loving sports.