The Saudi Women's National Football Team is a squad of female players selected through local tournaments and tryouts to represent the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in international competitions and championships. The first Saudi Women's National Team was formed in 2021. It was ranked by the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) in 2023. The Saudi Arabian Football Federation oversees the team and organizes its activities and development programs.
Beginning of the Saudi Women's National Football Team
The Saudi Women's National Football Team held its first preparatory camp in January 2022, following the launch of tryouts in October 2021 to assess players' levels. The tryouts involved monitoring the competitions of the Province League in Riyadh, Jeddah, and Dammam during November and December 2021. It witnessed the participation of sixteen teams, comprising 433 players, who played seventy-two matches. It also involved the Kingdom's Championship, which was held in January 2022, with the participation of the top eight teams at the level of the Kingdom. The team played its first two international matches in the Maldives against the national teams of the Seychelles and Maldives on February 20 and 24, 2022.
Categories of the Saudi Women's National Football Team
The list of Saudi women's football teams includes the First Women's National Team, the Women's National Futsal Team, the Under-Twenty Women's Youth National Team, and the Under-Seventeen Girls' National Team.
The Saudi Arabian Football Federation allocated three domestic competitions for women's football clubs to compete for the title, which are the Women's Premier League, the Women's First Division League, and the SAFF Women's Cup, through which the best players are selected to represent the Women’s National Team.
Participations of the Saudi Women's Football Club in 2023
SAFF held the Women's International Friendly Tournament in January 2023, where the Saudi national team won the title.
The first camp for the Under-Seventeen Girls' Football National Team was inaugurated in March 2023. The national team won its first friendly match against the Kuwait women's youth national team.
Efforts to develop women's football in the Kingdom
Women's football in the Kingdom has witnessed significant growth since 2019, with the establishment of the national women's team, the launch of the Women's Premier League, and the Women's First Division League, in addition to the Schools League, which includes over 48,000 girls from 3,660 schools. By 2023, the number of registered female players had increased from 374 to 694. Furthermore, SAFF aims to further development by hosting the AFC Women's Asian Cup in 2026.
FIFA, in partnership with SAFF, launched the movie "Huna... Bidayat al-Masirah" (Here is the Beginning), which is a documentary that showcases the story of the launch of the Saudi Women's National Team and the beginning of the women's football journey in the Kingdom.
On June 21, 2023, SAFF launched the Women's Teams Support and Development Program for clubs participating in the Women's Premier League and Women's First Division League. The program includes financial support amounting to SAR49,920,000 to improve the level of women's competitions, allow all teams to include an under-seventeen girls' team and a women's futsal first team, and increase the level of players to represent national teams.
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