Doha,April,1: The first ever girls football event at the Asian level will kick off on Monday when Qatar launches the Asian Football Confederation Under-14 Regional Championships.
The inaugural competition has been launched by the AFC to promote grassroots football with girls throughout the region.
Doha will play host to Group B, with Groups A, C and D taking place in other member countries of the AFC.
Qatar will take on Bahrain, Jordan, Palestine and the United Arab Emirates to compete for a place in the knock-out stages.
Two matches every day will be played at Al Arabi Sports Club from Monday April 1st and Friday April 5.
This is a unique opportunity for local football fans to gauge how women’s football is developing in the region with a tournament designed to give the most promising talent the platform to shine.
For Monica Stabb, German coach of the Qatar U-14s, the fact she even has a squad is something to be proud of considering how threadbare her squad was less than a month ago.
“Three weeks ago we had only had two girls who were training with us,” Stabb explained. “They were all the players we had.
“In the last two weeks we have gone to all the local schools and we now have 30 Qatari girls to choose from.
“I understand this is something new for the girls to be involved in but I would like to highlight what a wonderful opportunity it is for them. We really want to encourage these girls to take part in the tournament. It is a chance for them to make friends and get to see new places.”
Over the next five days some of the region’s most promising young females will showcase their talent in the prestigious AFC youth tournament.
Hosted at Al Arabi Sports Club, these starlets will experience what life as a professional football is like as they compete at the home of one of the teams in theQSL – Qatar’s top football league.
Qatar find themselves in Group B along with Bahrain, Jordan, Palestine and the United Arab Emirates. They kick off their first match on Tuesday, April 2nd against Palestine.
With girls’ football at such a young stage in the country, this tournament represents an exciting opportunity to be part of a new phase in football as Qatar continues to prepare for hosting the World Cup in 2022.
source:
Qatar Chronicle
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