This year's Heart Women's Soccer League winners could find themselves smiling all the way to the bank next year.
This comes against the backdrop of a huge cash injection in the next edition of the CAF Women' Champions' League, scheduled to be held in Morocco.
A US$150 000 purse has been pledged by the Confederations African Football (CAF) for each of the eight women's teams to participate in the prestigious competition.
Winners of the competition stand to receive US$ 600 000, while the runners-up will pocket US$400 000.
Third and fourth-placed teams from each group will also pocket US$200 000 and US$150 000 respectively on top of the participating fees.
"Each of the eight Africa Women Football Clubs that are participating in the CAF Women's Champions League in Morocco, will receive at least US$150 000 in prize money," read a statement from CAF.
"CAF is committed to developing and growing Women's football in Africa, and the objective of president Dr Patrice Motsepe is to invest in Youth Academies for boys and girls and to continue increasing the prize monies of all CAF competitions to make them globally competitive and attractive.
Since inception of the CAF Women Champions' League in 2021, Zimbabwe are yet to get representation.
Only Black Rhinos Queens and Herentals have participated as far as the COSAFA qualifiers.
This could be the moment for domestic teams to compete for a chance to appear at the competition and get massive financial boost.
Further, such international contests serve as a platform for players to showcase their skills in the hope of landing international contracts.
With four games still to play, defending champions Herentals Queens lead the log table with 64 points from 23 outings.
Black Rhinos are second with the same number of points but an inferior goal-difference to Herentals Queens.
Chapungu are on third position with 61 points but have a game in hand.
However, considering the current state of domestic women football, participation in such a competition will be a tall and almost impossible task.
The Heart League chairperson Theressa Maguraushe acknowledges that a lot needs to be done if Zimbabwean clubs are to take part in such competitions.
"The figures involved are very attractive and enough motivation for us. However, gathering from Herentals' performance and even our national team at COSAFA recently, we need to up our game. We have the talent and potential, but we realised that our standards are way low as compared to other nations," Maguraushe said.
Over the past years, one of the most avoided subjects is the apparent neglect of women's football. Nearly all individuals who vie for the key posts in Zimbabwe Football Association barely put the women's game as part of their campaign strategy.
Recently, the Walter Magaya-fronted Heart Group came on board as the principal sponsor of the women's game pledging a US$320 000 sponsorship package.
Conversely, the Zimbabwe Women Soccer League rebranded to The Heart Women Soccer League.
Of the total package, US$200 000 was meant to see off the remaining three months of the season while US$120 00 was set aside for the maiden edition of The Heart Cup.
This news was received with excitement within women football circles amid hopes that it would breathe new life to the financially struggling league.
Unfortunately, as the season comes to an end, clubs are yet to receive their sponsorship monies to enjoy the benefits of the deal.
Maguraushe insists that league sponsors released the funds although they (executive) are yet to disburse to the clubs.
"We received the money but there were issues with the bank which is why clubs are yet to receive their allocations.
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"The glitch also resulted in us diverting some of the funds to cover urgent expenses but we are working to get everything ratified as soon as possible," she said.
Clubs also agree that the other challenge has been failure by authorities or the lack of zeal in coming up with workable solutions for women football.Even those with a voice have stifled themselves.
The game is in dire straits, as seen by the few who granted Zimpapers Sport an audience only on condition their names are redacted from the published article.
"There are a lot of lies and deceit in our game, and nothing much is being done which is why we have lost most talent," said a source.
"Making it to the 2016 Olympics was testament to the potential we have, and we should have taken advantage of that momentum but we failed as a nation.
"Maladministration and financial mismanagement, especially of the FIFA funds, has affected women's football in a big way resulting in our girls missing out on huge opportunities," said one expert.
