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By Matthias Krug, DPA
Doha: It is the year in which Qatar announced its ambitious plans to host the football World Cup in 2022, and the Gulf country is already busy preparing to welcome the Asian continent’s best teams for the 2011 Asian Cup.
In November, the 1966 World Cup winners England will play against five-time world champions Brazil in Doha, the Qatari capital.
But it is not only the men here who have been infected with football fever. Inside the Qatar Women’s Sports Club, a group of young women sit around a conference table, all clad in the traditional black clothing of their country. These are the Marta’s and Mia Hamm’s of tomorrow.
They are the players of the first women’s national team of Qatar.
“I’m so proud to be part of this team,” 19-year-old Moza Ali said when Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa met Qatar’s football ladies this year, before admitting that she was also attracted by the charms of the men’s game.
“I don’t watch much ladies football; I follow more of the men’s game. I like David Beckham.”
Ali works at a local energy company in the morning before coming to training sessions in the afternoons. The self-confident striker says she has received only support since announcing her decision to tie her football boots for her country.
“I love to play football, and everyone supports me, sometimes my company gives me time off work to practice.”
Her team-mate and future Qatar goalkeeper Moza Maarij says the team must make sacrifices in order to make the step up to international level in time for the next World Cup qualification campaign.
But Maarij is also happy just to be able to follow her passion in a country where women’s sport would have seemed utopian just a decade ago.
“We are very happy because we can play football. For us this is a dream come true. We’ll train two hours, every day. We need to make sacrifices and work hard to show that we deserve this chance. We will try to be perfect, step by step.”
But perfection is not expected of these pioneering ladies. Simply fielding a team in international competitions will be seen as some success for Qatar’s women’s football team.
This small but highly ambitious nation at the heart of the Arabian Gulf country has gone through a breathtaking sports development over the past decade, hosting an ever increasing array of international sports events.
And with them came the female athletes and tennis stars.
“All of us visiting players hope we can inspire Qatari girls and ladies to play sports,” former French Open champion Ana Ivanovic told dpa at last November’s WTA Championships in Doha, “I started playing tennis because of Monica Seles, so when I’m on the court I hope to inspire some other young girls.”
The inspirational effect of seeing sportswomen compete in Doha has certainly set in, with girls around the country taking up formerly male-dominated sports.
But as Mariam al-Ishaq, a team official with Qatar’s female athletics team pointed out, there is another important factor involved in girl’s participation: family approval.
“Now the thinking of Qatari parents is changing, 80% of them are not like before. Before if you talked with anybody about women’s sport they said: ‘oh, what’s women’s sport? It’s dangerous.
No, how can we leave our daughters alone?” she remembers. “Now everything has changed.”
That change is what Qatar’s home grown and FIFA licensed assistant coach hopes to capitalise on as she forms her new team this year.
“They are good, believe me, they need just one year and you will see a great improvement,” says Mona Helal al-Naimi, proudly looking over her team. Training sessions are held in indoor facilities that are a legacy from the Doha 2006 Asian Games.
It was at the same venue that Ahlam Salem al-Mana, the president of the Qatar Women’s Sport Committee, saw the urgent need for a women’s national team. Huge crowds of female supporters flocked to see the first organized football tournament for ladies this year.
The event turned out to be a huge success, and even teams from Saudi Arabia have expressed their interest in participating in next year’s competition.
“On the first day of the event we had huge crowds of female spectators; the venue was sold out,” al-Mana said, “I could not believe it: women in Qatar are just as crazy about football as men.”
And it is just a matter of time before these ladies become fan favourites.
Goalkeeper Maarij may well become a media favourite, producing some interesting quotes as she encourages other women in the region to take up sports.
“Now all the men have decided for women to play football and all kinds of sport because they want their women to be thin and have sporty figures,” jokes Maarij, before adding on a more serious note: “We want to encourage more of our ladies to lead sporty and healthy lifestyles.”
And as they attempt in the coming months and years to fulfil their sporting potential, these ladies are already assured of the support of their counterparts in Qatar’s men’s national team.
“This is the first national team for ladies in our country and it is a positive development because many ladies in Qatar like football,” young Qatar right-back Mesaad Ali al-Hamad said, “This will show the world that we have ladies playing football as well, and we will support them.”
Opportunities to witness Qatar’s women’s team in action will be plentiful - similar teams are springing up across the Middle East as ladies become more emancipated in hitherto highly paternalistic societies.
“In Bahrain they have a good team, Kuwait is starting up now, the UAE has a team,” al-Mana told dpa, “so in my calendar there will be friendly matches against all these teams this year. We will sit down with the coach and see when she needs her friendly matches.”
Al-Mana and Qatar’s football ladies are well aware that there is a long road ahead of them, and temporary setbacks will be part of the game. But for now just donning their country’s national colours and running out onto the football pitch is the biggest victory. |
