The Qatar Football Association (QFA) initially had big ambitions. The women’s national team was founded in 2009, and in early 2013 Monika Staab was brought into the country as a coach. A strong sign of the emirate, after all, the German is considered a pioneer in promoting women’s football – and actually worldwide: she has worked in 75 countries, currently in Saudi Arabia as national coach. At the time, Qatar appeared to be serious about promoting women’s football in the country.
“The national team already existed,” says Staab in an interview with ORF.at – but in terms of sport, the status was manageable: At the end of 2010, the Arabia Women’s Cup was a tournament in which the team performed extremely poorly, according to Staab. Three defeats from three games, no goal, but 47 goals against. Two and a half years later – when Staab took office – that was to change. They started looking for girls in schools, says Staab, and progress was made: “Then I set up a U-14 and a U-16 team.”
Reported to the ministry – and not the association
But there was a structural difference that suggests the degree of recognition: the women’s team reported to the Women’s Sports Committee of the Department for Social Development and Family and not the QFA, where the men’s team is docked. At work, however, she personally “felt no oppression”.
Irrespective of this, the defeats of the women’s team should not be as painful as before the Staab era due to the ongoing training. At the 2014 West Asia Women’s Championship in Jordan, all three games were again lost – but there were far fewer goals conceded or two goals scored compared to the inferior record of 2010.
No competition since 2014
The sporting arrow was pointing upwards, the youngsters were ambitious, the basis for the first victories seemed to be in place – but the tide was to turn. In June 2014 – after one and a half years – the contract with Staab was terminated. “They wanted an Arabic-speaking trainer,” says Staab – although she “made quite good progress with English”. With Staab’s replacement, the initial ambitions for games of the women’s national team were reduced to a minimum.
“After that there was no more official international match,” said Staab in the ORF.at interview. There was also a change in the Women’s Sports Committee, the functionary who promoted Staab’s commitment left the committee. “It depends on the people who are in charge,” says the trainer. The question is whether women are given the opportunity to play and whether there is an interest in promoting women’s football – that was no longer the case in Qatar.
All just for the World Cup application?
Of course, after Staab’s departure and the final career of the women’s national team, the suspicion quickly arose that Qatar had only decided to found a women’s team because of the regulations of the World Football Association (FIFA) on the application to host the World Cup. When Qatar was awarded the contract, critics suspected that there was no longer any interest in keeping the game going. A suspected circumstance that the German did not want to comment on.
“Then something breaks down”
She is still in regular contact with players from Qatar, says Staab, but she cannot say why there are no more competitions. She sees herself as a construction helper, so the end after eight games was all the more regrettable because she gave a lot of energy.
“When something is built, it is important that it is continued. If that’s not the case, then something collapses again that you built up in a year and a half,” says Staab, who worked on projects in countries such as the Seychelles, North Korea and China after her time in Qatar.
But it is also clear: “Each association is responsible for itself,” says Staab. “Neither FIFA nor UEFA nor AFC (Asia’s federation, note) can dictate to the national federation how to do or not do women’s football,” said Staab. But it’s not as if women’s football doesn’t exist in Qatar anymore.
“Behind closed doors”
“The women are still training, they still have activities somewhere,” says Staab. And in general there are many women who want to play football: “You have to encourage it”, but if there are no games, they cannot develop, that is the problem. “If you want to promote women’s football, you need youth work,” but there aren’t the clubs for it.
“The women recently played a futsal league (futsal is a variant of indoor football, ed.), which is cheaper because it takes place behind closed doors, because women are supposed to wear a hijab in public,” says Staab. But that also depends on the family, says Staab. In general, the Arab world is “something special” when it comes to women’s football, and women also have family obligations to attend to.
“Discrimination in law and in practice”
Indeed, life for women in Qatar takes place with restrictions. When asked by ORF.at, the human rights NGO Amnesty International Austria speaks of “discrimination by law” and “in practice”. “Under the guardianship system, women need the permission of their male guardians” for essential life decisions. The guardian is usually the husband, father, grandfather, brother or uncle.
It is about “the decision to get married, to study abroad with a state scholarship, to work in the public sector, to travel abroad (this applies to women under 25, NB) and to receive health care in the field of reproductive medicine”. Women are also discriminated against by family law: there are “bigger hurdles” when it comes to divorce, according to Amnesty. And even minor decisions, such as whether a woman is allowed to play soccer or go to the stadium, ultimately rest with the guardian.
result as a side issue
And the women’s team of Qatar today? There have been few sporting appearances by the players recently, for example in December 2020, when a friendly match was held in Qatar against the US women’s soccer team Washington Spirit. A report on the association’s website provides all sorts of information about the game, but no result can be found, which leaves a lot of room for interpretation. Competitions in which the team participated are not documented.
Former team coach Staab sees a fundamental problem in the fact that the Qatar women’s team is not part of the national association. If you’re serious, you have to change that. In any case, the men’s team of Qatar will be entering the biggest possible stage in football on Sunday. And the opening game against Ecuador will show whether the years of development work around the men’s national team will also have a sporting effect – the result will go around the world regardless of the expected inferiority.
