Fez – The Saudi Arabian football federation announced on Saturday, November 13, that it will launch the first edition of the Saudi women‘s football league later this month. The new league is part of a 2017 program designed to support women’s football, according to a statement from the Saudi federation.
The league, which will begin on November 22, will be played in two phases. The first phase will see the participation of 16 teams and will take place in all of the capital Riyadh, Jeddah, and Dammam. Six teams from each region will take part in the competition – except for the Dammam region which will be represented by four teams. This phase will count as a sort of regional league.
Each region’s top three teams will then qualify for a knockout nationwide competition due to be held early next year at the King Abdullah sports city stadium in the city of Jeddah.
Describing the news as an important milestone in the life of the federation,” Yasser Almessahel, the president of the Saudi Arabian football federation, said that launching a women’s league has long been one of the core objectives of the Saudi federation.
Lamia Bahaian, head of the federation’s women’s football department, said: “No words can describe the moment we are living in today, in which the dream of the Saudi Women’s League came true.”
She added: “We enjoy unlimited support from our wise leadership, and in light of this support, we are proceeding today at a steady pace according to an ambitious strategy in which we all share [the] passion, ambition and determination to advance women’s football and bring it to the highest levels.”
Saudi Arabian football federation’s women’s football department shared a short video on Twitter containing details about the competition. The footage was accompanied with the hashtag “We Are Making History.”
Saudi Arabia has witnessed considerable societal reforms in recent years and sports is viewed to be a major element of these adjustments. Saudi women were for instance allowed to access stadiums for the first time to watch football in 2017.
Many among the leadership of the Saudi football federation hope for the launch of a women’s football league to strengthen the country’s determination to gradually and meaningfully break with a tradition of patriarchal oppression that has long ignored or quashed the most basic rights of Saudi women.
