This year, according to SportsProMedia, Saudi Arabia will be hosting the West Asian Football Federation (WAFF) women’s championship, now in its eighth edition and scheduled for Feb. 19–26 in Jeddah.
Never before has an 11-a-side women’s soccer tournament been held in the country, and never before has the Saudi Arabian team taken part in regional WAFF competition. Seven others teams – from Jordan, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Palestine, Guam and Nepal – will be competing.
“We’re especially excited about the impact this will have in terms of inspiring women and young girls across the kingdom while supporting women’s football development nationally and regionally,” says Lamia Bahaian, Vice President of the Saudi Arabian Football Federation.
Saudi Arabia hosted the WAFF Futsal Championship in 2022 and the FifaClub World Cup last year. The latter, as FIFA describes it, pits the “winners of each confederation’s premier competitions” against “the host nation’s representative.”
