A number of female coaches have been successful in the Arab world lately: - womenssoccerunited.com/womens-football-coaches-in-arab-countries (Archived) The ones from the Middle East they mention – Maram Butairi and Rawh Al Arfaj (both Saudi Arabia), Maha Janoud (Syria), Faiza Haider (Egypt) and Horiya Al Dhahiri (UAE, as seen in post #3)
Afghanistan Suspends Five Soccer Officials in Sex Abuse Scandal (NYT article) Afghan government suspends five officials of the country’s soccer federation, including the president, after allegations of sexual and physical abuse of members of women’s team. https://t.co/tnPJVlCQaV— New York Times World (@nytimesworld) December 10, 2018
^ And today, FIFA suspended Keram (the AFF president accused of abuse). Sri Lanka didn't end up as hosts - it'll be in Nepal in March 2019. There's more info in that thread: 2018/2019 SAFF Championship - www.bigsoccer.com/threads/2018-saff-championship.2089569 Also in Nepal, the 2018 final of the 12-team national league was APF (Armed Police Force) against the Nepal Army team. To reach the final, APF beat their bitter police rivals Nepal Police, with goals from APF's star striker Sabitra Bhandari. The final on 28 Nov 2018 came down to penalties: APF Wins Title Of 6th CoAS Women's Football... - www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5rbtMvG_jw / (Match report / Archived) Some consolation for the runners-up, and an odd headline: "Punam Jargha Magar Adjudged MVP; Receives One Scooter"
More 'sportwashing' by Qatar, they're fully funding a WWC training camp for the Jamaica team... ...while Qatar's own women's team hasn't played a game since April 2014. Qatar has never even entered the qualifiers for the Women's World Cup. Their men's WC "legacy" project is called Generation Amazing, featuring Qatar women's goalie Shaima Abdullah. The only amazing thing is how long it's taking. More than 8 years after Qatar bought the men's WC, the women's league is barely developed (it might still be 8-a-side?). It all seems like tokenism to avoid bad publicity before 2022. As seen in athletics, it can't change how misogynist the country is: Female athletes dismayed at the sport's deepening relationship with Qatar - https://www.independent.co.uk/sport...rsy-human-rights-diamond-league-a8325546.html (Archived)
There was more on the Afghanistan abuse case today, with players making rape allegations against the suspended FA president Keram (Trigger warning, very disturbing). It's unclear whether he'll be arrested or not:
The Attorney General’s office has put the names of Afghanistan Football Federation’s President along with his four colleagues in to the no-flying list and banned them from traveling out, following the accusation on abusing the female players of the AFF.— Jamshid Rasooli (@JamshiRasooli) December 28, 2018
Afghanistan's ex-captain Shamila Kohestani wrote a piece on her feelings about the case, and that some good might come from it: Full article - https://www.freewomenwriters.org/2019/01/07/abuse-afghanistan-womens-national-football-team/ (Archived)
India: A weird development... and some info on the football structure in the vast country: - https://scroll.in/field/907095/maha...nd-declares-winner-despite-aiff-cancelling-it (Archived) The leagues of at least five Indian state football associations have been cancelled by the All India Football Federation on Wednesday. The state associations of Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan and Goa have been asked to re-conduct their leagues or forsake a spot in the third season of the Indian Women’s League. – (Scroll.in)
AIFF (India FA) set to launch Four-Nations Tournament (7th - 17th February) India, Iran, Myanmar, Nepal https://www.goal.com/en-in/amp/news...ation-cup-landmark/1tr66zfj0rb3f1joj9haqbg2z4
In those regional championships in 2019 -- Bahrain hosted the 5-nation tourney of West Asia without a hitch: 2019 WAFF Women's Championship - https://www.bigsoccer.com/threads/2019-waff-womens-championship.2092757/ SAFF (South Asia) is coming up in March after a delay, in Biratnagar, Nepal - https://www.bigsoccer.com/threads/2018-saff-championship.2089569/
Qatar did not enter the WAFF Championship 2019, after doing so in 2014. Qatar was a topic in the Japan thread, as Qatar's men are champions of Asia now, while the women seem to be getting nothing. Checking again, I hoped to find more from Arabic sources... Qatar women's team basically doesn't exist at the moment. The QFA site only mentions men's teams. Qatar had bad defeats in the women's 2010 Arabia, they withdrew from the 2012 Olympics, beat Maldives and Kuwait in friendlies, and haven't played officially since 2014. Teams don't rebuild by shutting down for 5 years! The main news of interest was 5-a-side soccer for university teams. It seems pretty clear what's going on.
At the Azraq refugee camp in Jordan, the English pro player Katie Chapman visited for 10 coaching sessions with Syrian children: - https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/46066786 (Archived) Azraq refugee camp in Jordan (Photo: Russell Watkins/DFID, cc-by)
Terrible conditions at Iranian women's league games, including snow and a field described as a swamp: - https://women.ncr-iran.org/2019/01/21/womens-football-teams-winter/ (Archived) (ISNA/NCR-Iran) In 2018 a women's game in Ahwaz was played in dangerous pollution, 66 times the safe limit, while men's games were cancelled. (see NCR-Iran / Archived). Besides this, in Iran women's sport suffers many kinds of oppression. (Photo: NCR-Iran)
Dates are set for the tournament of the week: Games on Feb 9, 11 and 13, and the final on the 15th, in Odisha. India are getting more practice games now, with the upcoming SAFF (March) and Olympic quals (April). In 2019, India have beaten Hong Kong twice and Indonesia 2-0, goals by Sanju & Dengmei Grace. No info in English on Iran's squad yet. Myanmar are the highest-ranked team, and won a 2020 Olympic prelim group against India and Nepal. Nepal held both teams to 1-1 draws, and Nepal's record hints they might improve their low ranking.
At the end of Match Day 4, here's how things stand!@team_bufc seem to be running away with the league already! Can somebody stop them?#IndianFootball #Womensfootball #KSFAWFL pic.twitter.com/rdMtDWUj1I— Women's Football India (@WomensFootieIND) February 7, 2019
Matchday 1 of the "Gold Cup" 4 Nations in India: India 1 - 0 Iran (video highlights) Goal: Anju Tamang Myanmar 3 - 0 Nepal - Match report (Archived)
Been interested in India after seeing in another thread that they'll be traveling to Turkey later for another tournament; dug up the Gold Cup and it looks like day 2 is in the books! After beating Iran 1-0 on the first day, India found themselves in an 0-2 hole within 10min against lowest-ranking Nepal; they managed to pull one back but couldn't get the draw. Iran, on the other hand, held ranking leaders Myanmar scoreless for a full 90min before one of Myanmar's players scored a brace in stoppage time. Sets up a very interesting final day... Just going by rankings, you would expect Myanmar to beat India and Iran to beat Nepal. If that happens with a combined GD of 3 or more, that would send Iran to the final against Myanmar.
Nepal did amazingly well in the "Gold Cup" - 2-1 v India and 3-0 v Iran, and Nepal reached the final. Sabitra Bhandari scored twice in each win. Nepal's first ever win over India in a women's senior international, from the records I saw... Not a classic, but strangely compelling game HIGHLIGHTS: INDIA 1-2 NEPAL - Hero Women's Gold Cup 2019 - youtube.com/watch?v=k2AvLDCvPtg On matchday 3 Myanmar got their third victory, 3-0 against the hosts India (Match report / Archived). Iran left the tournament without a goal: Table: 1 Myanmar 9pts, 2 Nepal 6pts, 3 India 3pts, 4 Iran 0pts The final, on Friday night, ended Myanmar 3 - 1 Nepal (Video / Match report / Archive) - Goals: Yee Yee Oo 30', 62', Win Theingi Tun '53 / Manjali Kumari 45' The teams looked tired in their 4th game of the week, and the final result went with form. Nepal held it at 1-1 until Myanmar added two in the 2nd half. Nonetheless, Nepal's reputation is really improving at senior and youth level.
I do worry a bit for the Iranian WNT... I'd image that any team from a country with a less than stellar record in women's rights would have to continuously do well (or at least meet expectations) or else risk the federation view the team as not worth continuing to support. Coming into the tournament as #2 ranked and leaving with an 0-3 record can't be good optics.
I like the name of Myanmar's player who scored a brace in the final: Yee Yee Oo sounds like an incredibly funny name, particularly apt to appear in chant by supporters!
Girls Football Academy started by FAM Football Association of Maldives have officially launched the Girls Football Academy, which accepts girls from ages six to thirteen. Even though football is hands down the most popular sport in Maldives, most girls often opt to play non-contact sports such as volleyball, athletics, badminton etc. FAM's recent coaching license workshops have seen an increase in female participants, which is encouraging. Even though participation in futsal has dramatically increased over the last five years, teams often find it difficult to field 11 players and this is the reason why the women's football league is so poorly organized. It's also a big year for the women's national team with the SAFF Championship coming up next month, as well as the SAFF Games scheduled to be held in September in Kathmandu. The girls should take huge encouragement from their displays towards the end of 2018 and will be hoping to go one better than the last SAFF Championship in 2016, where they surprised everyone by reaching the semi-finals.
Kuwait women's futsal league 2019 has official backing from the KFA. It has a news page on Instagram, and the national team may return after a 6-year absence, “It’s Time for the Women in Blue” (Archived). (@Kutsuit!) Afghan investigators are moving slowly in the abuse case, and the team's American coach Kelly Lindsey has asked Fifa to increase the possible punishments for national FAs. Qatar: an informative report about women's soccer, but still frustrating – in the section "Kickoff from Above?" in this article. It mentions that migrant women in Qatar are much likelier to play football, as the DW travelogue also showed: "children of expats". It doesn't say why that prevents a national team.
Pakistan's team captain was in the media last week, as the PFF again failed to enter the SAFF women's championship in 2019. This interview with Hajra Khan from 2018 has more info on the women's football scene in Pakistan: - https://www.theguardian.com/football/2018/may/18/pakistan-hajra-khan-its-changing-geneva-abdul (Archived)