“We love football as much as any country in the world,” Ayah Hussein told DW. She was one of many female fans looking forward to watching the men’s national team in action at Amman International Stadium.
“At the coffee shop, there were as many women as men, and women are just as excited about seeing the Jordan flag at the .”
The recent match against Iraq was effectively a friendly, coming after Jordan had already clinched qualification for their first World Cup a few days earlier.
“I can’t wait to watch the games next year,” Hussein added. “It is going to be a big party, as we have waited a long time for this”
A year after the men appear on the global stage, comes the Women’s World Cup. Jordan is about to start qualification and is also desperate to appear at the tournament for the first time. The team came close to making it to the 2015 and 2019 before falling just short. A top six finish in the 2026 Asian Cup will be enough to earn a ticket to Brazil in 2027.
If it doesn’t happen then, the 2031 Women’s World Cup will be expanded from 32 to 48 teams to give Jordan a greater chance in the future. It may be no coincidence that the men clinched a spot at the enlarged 2026 tournament, in which Asia’s automatic allocation has doubled from four in 2022 to eight.
Steady growth
Jordan launched its in 2005, at a time when many countries in West Asia did not participate in football at all. At the time, there were around just 30 players to choose from in the entire country.
Over the past few years, the work of the past two decades has started to bear fruit.
“We have players who have retired and are now working in the federation, you have female coaches, referees and women working in the administrative field,” Rana Husseini, president of the Jordan Football Association’s (JFA) women’s committee from 2009 to 2018, told DW. When she started in her role, games were watched just by the players’ families.
“Now, there are more and more people going, interest is growing.”
They are now watching a professional league, the latest season of which kicks off in September and features six clubs. The winner enters the preliminary stage for the Asian Women’s Champions League while the bottom team, drops to a second tier. A pyramid has been developed.
Challenges on and off the pitch
It has been a long journey, led by Prince Ali bin Hussein, president of the JFA since 1999, who once noted that “women are 50% of our society and should be involved in everything.”
The prince, as a member of FIFA’s Executive Committee, was instrumental in persuading the world governing body to lift its ban on players wearing hijabs – the headscarves worn by some Muslim women – in 2012.
There have been other battles too. In a conservative Muslim country, not everyone agreed that girls should play sports.
“They would get attacked, not physically but verbally, on social media there would be cyber-bullying,” said Husseini.
Events such as Jordan’s hosting of the Women’s U17 World Cup in 2016 have made a difference.
“People have got accustomed to seeing women running and playing. They have broken social taboos, and you can see players from all parts of society.”
Sharing the glory
There are also significant financial benefits from the men reaching the World Cup. It has been reported that the total prize money for the 2026 tournament will be around double the $440 million (€379 million) on offer in 2022. For the Jordan FA, it could be worth between $10 and 20 million in appearance money alone. It is also expected that there will be a rise in commercial income from sponsors. A richer federation is good news for the women’s game.
“The obstacle for women’s football is always money,” said Husseini.
“Having many teams at all levels, entering tournaments and travelling costs money. The World Cup will mean more money for the federation – and more money for the women’s game means more opportunities.”
A stronger backyard
That is also the case elsewhere in the region. Twenty years ago, Jordan was a lonely federation in the women’s game in West Asia. Now though, other Arab nations are taking to the pitch. Palestine, Bahrain, Lebanon, United Arab Emirates and, for the first time, Saudi Arabia and Iraq are trying to qualify for the 2027 World Cup. If neighbors can improve, then everyone stands to benefit from a stronger region.
“You have to think of Asia in a regional and not continental context,” Khalil Al-Salem, general secretary of the Football Federation (WAFF) told DW.
“You have to tell Jordan that if you beat the 11 others in WAFF then you qualify for the World Cup. This encourages young federations like Qatar and Saudi Arabia to put more money into women, as they see a qualification path.”
It also means a wider and more lucrative path for young girls to become professional players.
“Jordan has focused on girls and grassroots and while that is the correct way, the main issue has been that there is a drop-off around the age of 17,” Al-Salim said.
“That is when girls then decide to go to college and stop playing football. But when they see their compatriots going to the World Cup and other leagues and clubs nearby, they see a path to a career in football.”
Amid the current heightened tensions in the region, football is bringing good news to Jordan and, maybe more.
“The fact that we finally got to reach the World Cup, is going to reflect positively on the mood in Jordan, specifically among the younger generation,” Husseini said.
“Young girls will see something big out of this and say ‘I want to play around the world, I want to raise the kingdom’s flag, I want to go to the World Cup.’”
Edited by: Chuck Penfold
The post Jordan’s women aiming to follow men to World Cup appeared first on Deutsche Welle.
