By Andrew Warshaw, Chief Correspondent
January 14 – Senior Asian football officials have stepped up their campaign to give women’s football a greater platform in a vast Continent where the game, in certain areas, is treated very much as a male preserve.
A two-day round table entitled ‘Women’s football in West Asia: Moving forward’ has just taken place in Amman chaired by FIFA Vice-President Prince Ali Bin al Hussein and attended by, among others, AFC Vice-President and Chairman of the AFC Women’s Committee Moya Dodd and representatives from UEFA, the English Football Association and West Asian football associations.
The conference aimed to identify the obstacles facing women’s football in West Asia – not least opposition in certain traditionalist Islamist regions – came up with a series of recommendations on how to move women’s football forward in the region.
They included the establishment of under-16 and under-19 women’s competitions in West Asia and compulsory rotation of hosting West Asian Football Federation (WAFF) women’s events.
Participants also recommended measures to publicise the game including targeting specific companies that focus on women’s football or women’s sports including clothing, equipment and sponsoring school tournaments.
How far countries like Saudi Arabia will recognise the seminar and embrace the right of women to play remains to be seen but delegates made it clear that gender equality was a right irrespective of culture, religion and race.
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