SAFF launches a program to support and develop women's teams

2023-06-21
15:09:08

Today, Wednesday, June 21, the Saudi Arabian Football Federation launched a program to support and develop women’s teams for clubs participating in the Women’s Premier League and the Women’s First Division League, with a financial support of 49,920,000 riyals.

The initiative comes as a commitment from SAFF to develop the women’s football system in the Kingdom, in preparation for the launch of the second edition of the Women's Premier League and First Division League 2023-2024 with the participation of more than 30 teams, as the last season witnessed the participation of 25 teams, 649 players and more than 50 foreign players, from 20 different nationalities.

The program aims to contribute to raising the level of women’s competitions and establishing different teams so that each club includes an U-17 women’s team and a women’s futsal team, in addition to developing female players to represent national teams, by motivating teams to sign professional contracts with Saudi female players and supporting female players from the youth groups to represent the first national team.

It also aims to enhance the governance and sustainability of the teams by obliging them to build a strategic plan and a comprehensive organizational structure, and to create job opportunities for the development of the workforce by appointing Saudi female coaches in the technical staff and employing national competencies in the administrative, technical and medical fields.

The teams participating in the Women's Premier League and First Division League are required to have a legal document represented in the membership of the Saudi Arabian Football Federation and a competitor’s license, and to acknowledge participation in all women’s tournaments organized by the Saudi Arabian Football Federation, and to fulfill the organizational and technical requirements issued by SAFF, in addition to acknowledging commitment to the financial efficiency system from the Ministry of Sports and the Saudi Arabian Football Federation to be able to obtain the allocated support.

The program was designed to include 3 types of support, direct and unconditional, conditional on mandatory criteria, and conditional on optional criteria, as the fulfillment of the criteria for each team will be reviewed through its evaluation by the competent committee in the Saudi Arabian Football Federation on a quarterly basis.

For her part, the member of the Board of Directors of the Saudi Arabian Football Federation, Lamia bint Ibrahim bin Bahian, expressed her happiness with this positive step, which stems from the SAFF's keenness to develop and sustain women's football, which is one of the main pillars of SAFF's strategy.

Bin Bahian added that her hope is that this support will give an incentive to players, coaches and the entire women's football system to actively participate, not only on the field, but by joining the available job opportunities in this field.

The next season of women's competitions, which begins in October 2023, is scheduled to include the launch of the first edition of the SAFF Cup for Women and a championship for the U-17 Women's teams.

It is noteworthy that the Saudi Arabian Football Federation includes more than 49 official women referees to manage local matches, and more than 1,000 female coaches who play effective roles in developing and nurturing young talents that are recognized through clubs, academies, regional training centers for young women, and school leagues throughout the Kingdom.