- A new champion has been crowned in the fourth season of Kuwaiti women’s Futsal League play.
- The games were broadcast on television for the first time, and tickets were sold to fans.
- The International Football Association Board (FIFA) has funded and supported infrastructure improvements in the country.
Women’s Football in Kuwait: Overcoming the Odds to Win. Some of the women who are currently contemplating the end of the fourth annual women’s Futsal league in the country have decided that this should be the title of a film if it were ever created. Women in Kuwait have few options for playing football before the last 15 years. Women had to fight stereotypes and social stigma since they were considered “too weak for sport.” A number of courageous young ladies, however, have persisted where others may have given up, and as a result, significant strides have been made.
Fatema Hayat became the first woman to serve on the Kuwait FA Board after being nominated and elected in May 2018. Since then, we’ve made incredible progress. Business strategies were developed during a meeting between the KFA Women’s Football Committee and FIFA Development Manager Essam Al Suhaibani and Project Coordinator Hasan Hassan. The proposal and funding from FIFA’s Forward program were approved quickly. FIFA put up $507,434 of the $569,782 total budget. There were four main pillars to the plan:
- Set up and manage the country’s first official women’s Futsal league to develop future stars for the national team.
- Create a facility to train female youth national teams in 11-a-side football.
- In order to increase the number of women who are able to participate in Futsal and football, it is recommended that festivals be held all across the country.
- Maintain a busy schedule with regular Futsal and football tournaments.
As a result of the establishment of the first Women’s Futsal League, doors opened for female athletes and officials. Kuwait was chosen as one of three pilot countries to design a four-year strategy for women’s football shortly after FIFA published its global Women’s Football Strategy.
Making a strategy is usually the simple part. More difficult will be putting it into action. Kuwait’s annual Women’s Futsal League has flourished thanks to its organizers’ hard work. The league was sponsored for a second year in a row, and 36 games were played between October 2021 and the end of January 2022 by six clubs with a total of 102 players (10 of whom were professional players from Ukraine, Brazil, Iran, and Thailand).
Competing for the trophy and the grand prize of USD $30,000 were the Kuwait Sport Club, Al Arabi Sport Club, Al Salmiya Sport Club, Al Fatat Club, Salwa Al Sabah Club, and Al Oyoun Club. Taking home the championship for the first time, Al Fatat Club edged out Kuwait Sport Club 5-2. Al Arabi Club came in third, defeating Salwa Al Sabah.
Tickets were sold to the match, and it was broadcast live on television—both firsts for women’s sports and for the sport of Futsal. The final match drew an incredible attendance of 1,100, demonstrating how far social views had come in just over a decade and a half.
Attended by Sheikh Ahmad Al Yousef, President of the Kuwait Football Association; Marzoug Ali Al Ghanim, Speaker of the Kuwait National Assembly; Dr. Saqer Al Mulla, Deputy Director of the Public Authority of Sports; Mr. Ahmad Oqla, Vice President of the KFA; and Fatema Hayat, Head of the Women’s Football Committee and Board Member of the KFA. We are quite pleased.
The culmination game and ceremony reflected our progress over the years. Farah Boodai, vice chair of the Women’s Football Committee, said that the event’s massive turnout showed that women’s football was here to stay.
We couldn’t have done it without FIFA’s Women’s Football and Member Associations Divisions’ unwavering support.” We were able to break down barriers and show people that women can compete thanks to Fatema Hayat’s leadership.
Shahrzad Muzafar, Kuwait’s national team coach and a pioneer in women’s football, delivered the final words. “I saw improvements in both the technical and tactical aspects of the league, from the development of Kuwaiti players to the recruitment of skilled professional players.” With the presence of fans who filled the hall, the final match day was a glorious occasion. If we keep going in this direction, Kuwait will have one of the best women’s leagues in Asia.”
A success story, with the odds now firmly in favor of the country’s women.
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