Arab nations cannot afford to ignore the rise of women’s football

The women’s game in the region cannot afford to fall behind much longer. (FILE/AFP)
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Updated 29 July 2020
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Arab nations cannot afford to ignore the rise of women’s football

  • The 2023 World Cup in Australia and New Zealand is unlikely to see any teams from West Asia
  • The desire to accelerate the progress of women’s football can be seen across grass roots level

DUBAI: On Sept. 25, 2005, a football match that few people will remember or even have heard of, took place in Amman, with hosts Jordan comfortably thrashing an overwhelmed Bahrain 9-0.

But the result mattered little. This was a football match with a difference for the beaten team; it was the first time that Bahrain’s national women’s team - established in 2003 - had taken to a football field.

Women’s football had taken its first, small step in the GCC. It was only a matter of time before Gulf nations would follow other more established football neighbors like Jordan and Egypt in developing the women’s game.

But while Bahrain and UAE have followed in those footsteps, things haven’t exactly progressed elsewhere.

Fifteen years on, a revolution is taking place in women’s football. But it’s a revolution that seems to be going under the radar in the majority of the GCC, Arab countries and the Middle East at large.

On June 25, 2020, the announcement that Australia and New Zealand will co-host the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup was warmly welcomed across the globe. More than a month on, the news has barely made any waves in the region, especially considering one of the co-hosts, Australia, is a fellow Asian Football Federation (AFC) member state.

The 2023 World Cup will also see the number of participating nations expanded from 24 to 32, in line with the men’s competition, though the extra qualifying opportunities are unlikely to vastly improve the chances of Arab nations. 

Across Asia, teams like Japan and China, as well as North Korea and South Korea, have for long been powerhouses in the women’s game, and now Vietnam, Thailand and Uzbekistan are increasingly looking to close the gap on the heavyweights of Europe and the Americas as well. For now, the West Asian region is being left further behind.

Perhaps it’s no surprise that the women’s game has not captured the imagination, or even mere attention, of the regional public. No Arab nation has ever taken part in the FIFA Women’s World Cup since its inception in 1988, and only a few ever make the AFC Asian Cup. Women’s football, for long a traditional taboo, remains a novelty even in these days of cultural progress. That remains the case beyond this region.

At the same time, any criticism for lack of the progress of the women’s game must come with acknowledgement of the socio-political environment, and hardships, that prevail in many Arab and Middle Eastern countries like Syria, Lebanon, Palestine and Iraq. In many cases, football and sports in general, for men as much as women, are fraught with political and cultural obstacles which render them of secondary concerns.

But perhaps that is as good a reason as any to ensure the current rise of women’s football does not become the latest wasted opportunity; it’s not just the sporting aspect of women’s game that female athletes would be missing out on.

In recent years, women’s football has become a driving force for equal rights in sports, and beyond, something many regional nations are striving to put right.

In particular, the 2019 World Cup in France was a revelation, a true game-changer for the women’s game at so many levels. There were record attendances and worldwide record television audiences and perhaps for the first time ever, the tournament was enjoyed without the usual, stereotypical caveats. 

Even the previous World Cup, in Canada in 2015, had seen major steps taken in the women’s game, with the US Women’s National Team (USWNT) as ever, leading the way.

American captain and star of the last year’s World Cup, Megan Rapinoe, has for one transcended the sport to become a role model for aspiring female athletes and one of football’s most vocal advocates for women’s empowerment.

Ahead of winning the 2023 bid, Australia’s women’s team, the Westfield Matildas, took on Football Federation Australia and Fifa to achieve equal pay with their male counterparts. On Nov. 6, 2019 they won their case and the next World Cup will now stand as a beacon of gender equality and non-discrimination for female footballers.

It would be unfair and unrealistic to expect such giant steps to take place across nations were women’s football remains embryonic, and nor is there is a complete lack of interest by West Asian federations in promoting the game in countries like UAE, Jordan and Bahrain, and with Saudi Arabia indicating huge leaps in the coming years too.

Jordan remains the highest women’s FIFA-ranked Arab nation at 58, and thanks to the work of former FIFA Vice President Prince Ali bin Hussein and the Jordan Football Association, the team has won several regional tournaments and competed at continental level. And in captain Stephanie Al Naber, who had a spell playing at Danish club Fortuna Hjørring 10 years ago, they have a role model that young Jordanian footballers can aspire to emulate. 

In 2018, the Women’s Asian Cup was held at Amman International Stadium and King Abdullah II Stadium in the Jordanian capital, two years after the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup had been a success. Jordan, as hosts, were the only Arab representatives in either competition.

In the UAE, a program of training for talented young Emirati girls over the last decade has raised the profile of the women’s national team, with age group selections taking part in invitational tournaments in Asia and Europe. 

Having established a women’s team in 2004, a year after Bahrain, the UAE won the West Asia Football Federation (WAFF) Women’s Championship in 2010 and 2011, albeit with a team of mostly nationalised foreign players. Last year in Bahrain, fielding a team of Emirati players, the UAE finished fourth.

The desire to accelerate the progress of women’s football can be seen across grass roots level as well.

The UAE Football Association (UAE FA) has provided significant funding for the national team programs, as well as the seven-team domestic league, with Houriya Al Taheri - coach and technical director with the UAE FA - and Omar Al Duri, formerly a coach with Ghana’s World Cup squad, exerting a positive influence on a team now ranked 97 in the world, 13 behind Bahrain at 84.

In Saudi Arabia, Saja Kamal, a footballer with a massive online following has been leading a campaign to establish a senior national team in the Kingdom, and like Naber and Al Taheri, is a role model in her own right.

Women were only allowed into Saudi football stadiums as recently as 2017, but progress has accelerated in recent times. Earlier this year, an official women’s league was launched in the Kingdom that aims to encourage participation at grassroots and community level.

The 2023 World Cup may come too soon to see an Arab team taking part in Australia and New Zealand. But it should be seen as an unmissable opportunity to learn the lessons that other nations have taken on board, and plan ahead.

Perhaps regional countries could follow suit and co-host international tournaments. That would easily be within the capabilities of the UAE and Saudi Arabia. Staging such competitions would indicate a commitment to the women’s game and to gender equality. Above all, it will bring the game closer to young female football fans.

The women’s game in the region cannot afford to fall behind much longer.


Paul Waring shoots 61 in Abu Dhabi to set 36-hole record on European tour with 19-under par

Updated 52 min 56 sec ago
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Paul Waring shoots 61 in Abu Dhabi to set 36-hole record on European tour with 19-under par

ABU DHABI: Paul Waring hit the shot of his life to complete a career-low 11-under 61 in the second round of the Abu Dhabi Championship on Friday and establish a five-stroke lead heading into the weekend of the European tour’s first playoff event.
The No. 229-ranked Englishman hit a draw with a 3-wood from about 260 yards to inside 4 feet at No. 18 and tapped in the birdie putt to move to 19-under par for the tournament.
The European tour confirmed to The Associated Press that it is the lowest 36-hole score to par in the tour’s history.
Waring, who opened with a 64 on Thursday, made nine birdies and an eagle in a bogey-free round at Yas Links and set a course record.
“I’ve got a nice lead at the moment but even before I tee off tomorrow, someone might have caught me,” said the 39-year-old Waring, whose sole win came at the Nordea Masters in 2018. “While I’m in the lead at the moment, and if we are rational about this, everyone is still going to fire a lot of
birdies in there.

Paul Waring. (AFP/File)


“So if I’m going to be involved on Sunday afternoon, I’ve still got to keep going the way I am and I know that.”
First-round leader Tommy Fleetwood of England (68), Johannes Veerman of the United States (67) and Danish players Niklas Norgaard (65) and Thorbjorn Olesen (67) were tied for second place on 14 under.
Rory McIlroy hit his tee shot into a greenside bunker at the par-3 17th and made a triple bogey on the way to a second successive 67, leaving him nine strokes off the lead.
McIlroy, who can clinch a sixth Race to Dubai title with a win this week, was 7 under after 13 holes of his second round and feels he’ll need to produce something similar to reel in Waring and his closest chasers.
“I need the golf course to firm up a little bit and toughen up a little bit to have a chance,” McIlroy said. “There’s so many gettable holes out there.”


Zheng advances to WTA Finals championship match with semifinal win over Krejcikova

Updated 08 November 2024
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Zheng advances to WTA Finals championship match with semifinal win over Krejcikova

  • Zheng, 22, awaits top-seeded Aryna Sabalenka or third-seeded Coco Gauff in the final on Saturday

RIYADH: Olympic gold medalist Zheng Qinwen became the first tournament debutante to reach the championship match at the WTA Finals since 2021 with a 6-3, 7-5 victory over Barbora Krejcikova in Riyadh on Friday.

The seventh-seeded Zheng needed one hour and 40 minutes to overcome the Wimbledon champion in their semifinal encounter, firing nine aces along the way.
Zheng led 6-3, 3-0 before the eighth-seeded Krejcikova launched a comeback attempt but the Chinese star regained control of the match to make it two wins from two clashes with the Czech.
Zheng, 22, awaits top-seeded Aryna Sabalenka or third-seeded Coco Gauff in the final on Saturday, as she bids to become the first player to win the WTA Finals on her maiden appearance since Ashleigh Barty in 2019.
“It feels so special because this is my first WTA Finals and right now I’m in the final, which is unbelievable. She’s a really good player, today we gave a good match,” said Zheng.
“It was tricky because at 3-0 I think I dropped my performance; suddenly my performance went down, and she played more free and I was suddenly 3-4 down. I gave so much control to myself to not panic too much. It shows I was mentally strong in that moment.”
Zheng was near untouchable on serve in the 40-minute opening set, dropping just one point behind her first delivery en route to a 6-3 lead.
The Olympic champion broke twice for a 3-0 advantage in the second set and looked on her way to a comfortable victory.
But Krejcikova had other ideas and she halted Zheng’s momentum by attacking her second serve to grab the next four games and inch ahead for the first time in the contest.
It became a tug of war but it was Zheng who found an opening, breaking in game 12 to put herself in the position to serve for the match.
The fight wasn’t over yet as Zheng had to save a break point and saw a first match point slip away before she wrapped up the win on her second chance when a Krejcikova forehand sailed wide.
Since the event’s inauguration in 1972, Zheng is only the second Asian player to reach the decider at the WTA Finals after Li Na pulled off that feat in 2013.


PSG to curb political slogans in wake of ‘Free Palestine’ banner

Updated 08 November 2024
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PSG to curb political slogans in wake of ‘Free Palestine’ banner

  • PSG promised to “guarantee the absence of political messages” in the stands
  • “The club was not aware of the plan to display such a message“

PARIS: Paris Saint-Germain say they will make sure there is no repeat of a midweek unfurling by fans of a banner proclaiming “Free Palestine.”
The huge banner covered an entire section of the stadium at the Parc des Princes Wednesday night ahead of PSG’s defeat at the hands of Atletico Madrid.
As well as the slogan “Free Palestine,” the banner showed a bloodstained Palestinian flag, a gesticulating man with a keffiyeh scarf covering all his face except his eyes, the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem and a young boy wrapped in the Lebanese flag.
On Friday, after a meeting with the French football federation and government officials, PSG promised to “guarantee the absence of political messages” in the stands.
“A frank and constructive dialogue made it possible to identify solutions that PSG is committed to putting in place from the next match at the Parc des Princes,” a government spokesperson told AFP.
The banner, which was unfurled by the Paris Ultras Collective (CUP) hard-core fan group, was shown above another slogan which read: “War on the pitch but peace in the world.”
“The club was not aware of the plan to display such a message,” PSG said in a statement Wednesday evening.


Al-Hilal win again to pile pressure on Gerrard at Al-Ettifaq

Updated 08 November 2024
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Al-Hilal win again to pile pressure on Gerrard at Al-Ettifaq

  • Three fine goals from Aleksandar Mitrovic, Malcom and Mohammed Al-Qahtani did the damage

RIYADH: Al-Hilal returned to the top of the Saudi Pro League on Friday, defeating Ettifaq 3-1 to rack up the pressure on under-fire coach Steven Gerrard.

Three fine goals from Aleksandar Mitrovic, Malcom and Mohammed Al-Qahtani did the damage as the champions moved a point clear of Al-Ittihad, who won 2–0 at Al-Orubah on Thursday. 

The loss means that Ettifaq, who started the season with three straight wins, have taken just one point from the last six games in the league. It may mean a nervous international break for Gerrard, though the Liverpool legend will know that this was a battling performance from his players, who just did not quite have the quality when needed.

While Ettifaq tried to keep it tight at the back, it was not all one-way traffic. Moussa Dembele had a couple of opportunities when the ball simply wouldn’t fall for him and Karl Toko-Ekambi shot just over from the left side, though it could have been a mishit cross.

All know, however, that you have to be ruthless and clinical when playing the 19-time Saudi champions as wastefulness is almost always punished. It took the Blues some time to get going but they started to look ominous as half-time approached.

Just before the break, Al-Hilal should have taken the lead. This season Mitrovic has been lethal inside the area and the league’s leading scorer was picked out in space near the penalty spot; the stadium held its breath but former Fulham teammate Marek Rodak got his foot to the low shot and Malcom fired the rebound wide.

Mitrovic didn’t miss in added time. Renan Lodi picked up possession on the left and the Brazilian then bent a beautiful low cross behind the Ettifaq defense and Mitrovic could not miss from inside the six-yard box for his 11th of the season.

Ettifaq were still very much in the game and ten minutes after the restart, Toko-Ekambi stretched for a low cross, and while the Cameroonian did make contact and forced a good save from Yassine Bounou, it was a great chance.

The easterners thought they were going to regret that as Mitrovic had the ball in the net once more but his close-range header was ruled out for offside. There was a lengthy VAR review but it only confirmed the referee’s original decision.

The second goal did come eventually, and when it did — in the 81st minute — it was one to remember, for the home fans at least. Malcolm was running in from the left side of the area when he was found by a smart backheel from Abdullah Al-Hamdan. The Brazilian then took the ball past the goalkeeper with his first touch and then rolled the ball home.

It seemed that there was no coming back from that — Hilal are not a team that gives up two-goal leads — but as injury time started, Ettifaq were handed a lifeline in the shape of a penalty, and up stepped Vitinho to place the ball into the bottom corner.

Unfortunately for the visitors, it served just to wake up the hosts, who quickly restored their two-goal lead, though Gerrard angrily told officials that Mitrovic had committed a foul in the build-up. The home fans enjoyed the goal, however, as Malcom fed Mohammed Al-Qahtani who turned 360 degrees to make a little space in the area and then fired a low shot home.

It got even worse for Ettifaq as Abdullah Radif was sent off for shoving Ali Al-Bulaihi in the neck. There really was no coming back from that.

All in all, it was a perfect evening’s work for Al-Hilal, even if Saudi Arabia coach Herve Renard will be a little concerned that star man Salem Al-Dawsari seemed to pick up an injury — with the trip to Australia for a vital World Cup qualifier next Thursday.

Elsewhere, Al-Ahli bounced back from their defeat in the Jeddah Derby to defeat Al-Raed 2-0.


Paul Waring shoots 61 in Abu Dhabi to set 36-hole record on European tour with 19-under par

Updated 08 November 2024
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Paul Waring shoots 61 in Abu Dhabi to set 36-hole record on European tour with 19-under par

  • Waring, who opened with a 64 on Thursday, made nine birdies and an eagle in a bogey-free round at Yas Links
  • Rory McIlroy made a triple bogey on No. 17 in his second successive 67

ABU DHABI: Paul Waring hit the shot of his life to complete a career-low 11-under 61 in the second round of the Abu Dhabi Championship on Friday and establish a five-stroke lead heading into the weekend of the European tour’s first playoff event.
The No. 229-ranked Englishman hit a draw with a 3-wood from about 260 yards to inside 4 feet at No. 18 and tapped in the birdie putt to move to 19-under par for the tournament.
The European tour confirmed to The Associated Press that it is the lowest 36-hole score to par in the tour’s history.
Waring, who opened with a 64 on Thursday, made nine birdies and an eagle in a bogey-free round at Yas Links and set a course record.
First-round leader Tommy Fleetwood of England (68), Johannes Veerman of the United States (67) and Danish players Niklas Norgaard (65) and Thorbjorn Olesen (67) were tied for second place on 14 under.
Rory McIlroy made a triple bogey on No. 17 in his second successive 67 and was nine strokes off the lead.
McIlroy can clinch a sixth Race to Dubai title with a win this week.