The U-17 Women’s SAFF Championship will be launched

2023-10-23
19:57:31

The Saudi Arabian Football Federation will launch the first edition of the U-17 Women;s SAFF Championship, with the participation of 22 teams from the Women’s Premier League and First Division League.

The Championship is scheduled to start in November and continue until February, as it will be divided into two parts: The first is the group stage at the regional level, then the final rounds, which witness the division of the clubs into groups, each of which plays in the full league system (home and away).

The first and second teams qualify for the final rounds, and the final matches will be held in a group system with a knockout of one match, starting from the quarter-finals.

The final rounds are scheduled to be held at the end of February 2024, bringing the total number of tournament matches to 100.

The four groups that were distributed regionally include:

Group A in Riyadh:
(Al-Nassr, Al-Hilal, Al-Shabab, Al-Riyadh, Al-Nosour Al-Dhahabiya, regional training centers).

Group B in the Eastern Province:
(Shouala Al-Sharqiya, Al-Qadisiyah, Al-Taraji, Ras Tanura, regional training centers).

Group C in Jeddah:
(Al-Ahli, Najmat Jeddah, Sahm, Al-Anqa, Al-Ula).

Group D in Jeddah:
(Jeddah, Al-Wahda, Al-Nawras, Abha, Manjam Al-Mawaheb, Regional Training Centres).

For her part, Director of the Women’s Football Department, Alia Al-Rasheed, said that this step represents a qualitative shift in women’s football plans in the Kingdom, noting that the focus in the current period is on building a distinguished generation of young women and increasing the number of official matches for them, which contributes to raising the technical quality of female players.

She added that the U-17 Women;s SAFF Championship will be an important support for the national teams of all youth groups, thanking all participating clubs for the important role they play in building a base for women's football.

It is noteworthy that the Women's Football Administration has devoted its efforts to establishing the under 17 women's national team in 2023 as part of developing talents from early ages to contribute to building a strong foundation for the national team to represent the Kingdom internationally.