Saudi Arabia Women’s football team creates history
Saudi Arabia women’s football team makes history once again. The women’s team has shown immense improvement under the new coaches.
Football, as a sport is prevalent in Saudi Arabia. It is their most popular sport. In 2011 women’s football in Saudi Arabia was seen as an instrument to tackle obesity. Today, after 12 years the women’s national team has entered the FIFA rankings for the first time in their history.
In 2021 when the former German player and manager, Monika Staab took on the duties of coaching the women’s team the dream to be in the FIFA rankings seemed to be very far. In 2021 the whole country had just 119 coaches, fast forward to 2023 there are more than 1,000 coaches with licences.
The Saudi Arabian Football Federation President Yasser Al Misehal was all praises for the national team. Misehal said, “What these girls have achieved in just a matter of a year and a half has been nothing short of incredible.”
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In the last 2-3 years women’s football in Saudi Arabia has taken huge strides. For example, the country has successfully set up two leagues. The two leagues are the Premier League and First Division League. There are a total of 25 teams that participate in these leagues. The country now also has an Under-17 side. There have been recreational training centres created for girls of ages 6-17 years. The number of referees has also seen a huge jump of 66%.
Talking about the national team, the team has reached the FIFA rankings for the first time. In February 2023 Staab was replaced by former Finland women’s national team coach and player Rosa Lappi-Seppala. Staab was appointed as the newly created position of Women’s Football Technical Director. They now rank 171 out of the 188 countries in the FIFA rankings.
The team even won a friendly tournament this year featuring Pakistan, Comoros and Mauritius alongside Saudi Arabia. They have tasted success recently as they have won their four matches in the last nine games.
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