Watch .. So Jordanians outperformed football despite the difficulties

Hamam Al-Assas - Amman

"The idea of ​​a girl playing football was strange to people." Aya Majali, 26, describes the beginnings of her football career. 16 years ago she was the only girl to play football with males in her residential neighborhood in Amman. Women's foot, nor a women's team representing Jordan.

To the West Asian Championship
Majali did not imagine that her dream would become a reality in representing her country internationally with a women's football team. As a result of her superiority in the sport since her childhood, she was sent to the Prince Ali bin Al Hussein Center in 2005, Introducing women's football. Then the women's football began to be translated into the stadiums, and Majali's march towards the world began.

She joined the Jordan Youth Club in the same year and was one of the first professional male clubs to form a women's football team, out of 12 professional male clubs in the Kingdom at the time. Al-Majali did not spend long time in the professional clubs to be selected as a player in the national team (in 2006) with 20 women who were racing in the beginning of the world of women's ball.

West Asia Championship
Al-Majali added to Al-Jazeera Net that the most important point in her life and in the world of women's football in Jordan was the recent victory of the West Asian Championship (2006) while the Jordanian women's football was in its beginnings, which encouraged other girls and broke many barriers in front of them. They loved football to the modern clubs and women.

The women's football team won the West Asian Championship for the first time in 2006, maintaining the title six times out of nine tournaments, the last of which was in 2019, in addition to winning the national team two tournaments in the Asian qualifiers, and qualified twice for the World Cup.

The victories achieved by the women's team in record time enabled it to be the best in the Arab region and the West Asia region, despite the modest capabilities and support provided to it, compared to the countries of the Arab and Asian region. According to Majali, the team did not reach this stage without the support of Prince Ali bin Al-Hussein, who have morally qualified to make the international progress made by the Jordanian football for males.

Difficult beginnings
Al-Majali traced the beginnings of women's football more than a decade ago. The customs and traditions of the Jordanian society hampered the progress of women's sport, as they were purely masculine for the players and the public. "I feel a lot of difference in the women's football, which has only 25 players to reach more than 1,000 women under the umbrella of the football federation," she said.

Challenges to players
With the advancement of women's football, obstacles still limit the stability of the game. Most professional players have had to do extra work because of the insufficient salary provided by the Federation and clubs, which barely enough to cover the transport budget. To work to fulfill the obligations of life, resulting in the loss of the national team and sports clubs for professional players is not easy to prepare.

The reality of many of the players who had to retire from the game reflects the economic reality, but other players have come to the field of training to leave the game forever. Former coach and player Zeina Pietro, 30, is a sports teacher in the morning, and in the evening she is assistant coach for the women's team at Jordan Youth Club.

Due to her inability to continue her life as a football player due to the working conditions and exhaustion of the football player from travel and daily training after morning hours, she went to the field of training as soon as she retired from playing after a 17-year march, most of which was spent as a national football player.

From player to director of women's ball
Former national team player Souline Zoubi has been welcomed by the women's football team as a player of the sport and familiar with the issues and problems faced by female players.

And works hard to secure financial support. In addition to benefiting from the benefits provided by the Union, the Zoubi administration is providing support from the AFC and other grants that can be provided by the World Women's Football Associations.

Spreading culture in the governorates
Al-Zubi has the task of spreading the culture of women's football practice in the governorates. Since taking over the women's department in the Federation, she has done 15 female training centers spread over the Kingdom's governorates to contribute to spreading this game and changing the prevailing culture that prevents girls from playing football.

Al-Zoubi added that Jordan's success in hosting the 2016 World Cup for women under 17 years and covering local and international media have contributed significantly to changing the culture of Jordanian society towards women's football.

"If Al-Faisaly and Al-Wahdat clubs are women's clubs, this will change the society's perception, because it has a high level of professionalism that will add to the women, and then women's football will become equal to its masculine counterpart," she said.