Pakistan to participate in women’s football tournament in Saudi Arabia next month
ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan women’s national football team will travel to Saudi Arabia in September to take part in a multi-nation tournament, an official at the Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) said on Tuesday.
Pakistan last traveled to Saudi Arabia in January this year to participate in a four-nation tournament that also featured Comoros and Mauritius. The green shirts beat Comoros before losing to Mauritius 2-1 but ended the tournament on an impressive note, drawing 1-1 against a formidable Saudi Arabia which emerged victorious.
“The Saudi [Arabian Football Federation] sent us an invite, which we accepted but we don’t know which [other countries] teams are taking part,” a PFF official privy to the development told Arab News, declining to be named.
“We only know that the matches would take place from September 18-30 according to the FIFA calendar for women’s international matches.”
PFF has not officially announced Pakistan’s participation in the Saudi event or shared a schedule but official said the Federation would issue a press release as soon as more details were available.
The team won a thumping 7-0 victory over Maldives in the South Asian Football Federation championship in September 2022. In April this year, the resilient team defied all odds and emerged victorious with a 1-0 win over Tajikistan in the qualifiers for the 2024 Paris Olympics.
It was Pakistan’s first win at a major global tournament since returning to regular international football in September 2022 after a long hiatus. Previously, the team had only bagged wins in friendly matches or exhibition tournaments like the Four-Nation Cup in Saudi Arabia.
The team’s history is relatively short, with their debut in the Dhaka South Asian Games in 2010. Their progress was also hampered by an eight-year hiatus from international competition between 2014 and 2022, due to governance and infrastructural issues within the Pakistan Football Federation. FIFA also banned the PFF multiple times during this period, primarily due to “third-party interference.”
