Jordan’s women’s U-17 team prepare to take on world

World Cup kicks off in Amman on Friday

AMMAN, Sept 28, (AFP): Jordan’s under-17 women footballers are set for the contest of their lives as the first international all-female tournament ever held in the Middle East kicks off in Amman on Friday.

FIFA’s U-17 Women’s World Cup starts with a showdown between Jordan and Spain at the capital’s 13,000-seat international stadium.

“We’ve worked hard to get ready,” Jordan central defender Anoud Gazi said after an evening training session at a stadium south of Amman.

“Playing in a World Cup, it’s a dream for me and the other players. I’m really excited about the match.”

The 16-year-old faces high school final exams at the end of the year, but for now she’s taking time off to pursue her dream.

“I haven’t been to class for a month. The headmaster said ‘don’t think about anything -- just the World Cup’,” she told AFP.

FIFA and the Jordanian government are hoping the contest will help promote women’s football in Jordan and across the conservative Muslim-majority region.

As in other parts of the Middle East, football is Jordan’s most popular

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sport, but it is dominated by men.

FIFA say 13,890 women and girls are registered at football clubs in 19 countries across the Middle East and North Africa.

They said Jordan has been a pioneer, launching a women’s football programme in 2005 and now aiming to “shine a light for girls and women throughout the Middle East and beyond”. The country’s Queen Rania has also been supportive, saying female footballers can be role models who challenge negative perceptions of women.

“To have young girls playing sports, and playing football specifically, can do so much to change attitudes and perceptions as to how society perceives girls and young women,” she said in a statement released by FIFA.

Organisers are hoping for a sellout opening match on Friday, promoting the tournament with posters around Amman bearing portraits of five smiling players and the slogan: “One heart, one goal, one team”.

The players have become local celebrities, arriving at training sessions in a brand new bus escorted by police cars with flashing lights.

The government is using the competition to promote Jordan’s image as an open country and a haven of peace amid conflicts rocking the Middle East.

Jihadist attacks, such as the murder earlier this week of a Jordanian writer accused of blasphemy, and the war in neighbouring Syria have hit the country’s tourism businesses hard. Tourism Minister Lina Annab said the tournament was “an opportunity that must be taken to promote Jordan”, and that players and delegations would be given tours of the country’s most famous sites.

On the sporting front, the Jordanian players are under no illusions. After a 7-0 defeat to Brazil a week before the tournament, they’re aware of the challenge they face. But they remain optimistic. Centre-forward Sarah Abu Sabbah, who plays for Germany’s Bayer Leverkusen, said football is “full of surprises”.