Jordan faces Iraq in U-14 Asian Regional Championship

AMMAN — The 3rd AFC U-14 Girls Regional Championship for West Asia kicks off in Bahrain on Monday with five teams competing.

Jordan plays Iraq as the UAE plays Palestine on the opening day. They will join host Bahrain in the five-day event played under the single round robin system.

Jordan holds the West Zone title from the past two editions. Last year, the U-14 squad retained the title in Amman after an unbeaten streak that saw them beat Bahrain 4-0, Qatar 7-0, Palestine 5-0 and the UAE 3-0.

Jordan had also won the inaugural event in Doha, Qatar, in 2013 with an unbeaten streak as well.

Led by HRH Prince Ali, the Jordan Football Association has placed great emphasis on developing the game in the Kingdom. Jordan will host the 2016 U-17 Women’s World Cup and is now gearing up to implement executive plans to prepare four stadiums as well as 16 practice fields. Jordan beat bids from Uruguay, South Africa, Ireland and Bahrain. 

Last month, the senior women’s team went up two spots to 54th in the latest FIFA World Rankings. The Kingdom leads all Arab teams and is 11th in the Asian continent ahead of Japan, North Korea, Australia, China, South Korea, Thailand, Vietnam, Taiwan, Myanmar and Uzbekistan.

The latest rank comes after the squad topped Asian Group A qualifiers and reached Round 2 of the qualifiers — the first phase of the qualifying journey to the 2016 Summer Olympics football tournament — which are set for September.

Jordan beat Uzbekistan 2-0, Hong Kong 1-0 and Palestine 6-0. Group leaders will join Vietnam and Thailand in Round 2, from which the top team will move to Round 3 to play the top five seeded teams — Japan, Australia, South Korea, North Korea and China — which eventually qualifies the top two to represent Asia at the Olympic Games. It is Jordan’s second time in the qualifiers after the 2012 London Olympic qualifiers when they advanced to Round 2. 

Team officials hope the squad will make up for a disappointing 2014 season when the senior women’s team exited Round 1 of the 2014 Asian Games and similarly exited the Round 1 of their first 2014 AFC Women’s Asian Cup where they were also the only Arab team to have ever qualified. The squad is reigning West Asian champs. Jordan won the West Asian title twice in 2005 and 2007, conceded to the UAE in 2010 and 2012, and regained it in 2014 as Iran, Lebanon as well as two-time champs and titleholders, UAE missed the event.

In age divisions, the U-19 team last year failed to repeat their 2007 qualification to the AFC U-19 Women’s Championship which eventually qualifies the top three teams to the 2016 FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup. The U-16 team failed to qualify to the 2015 AFC U-16 Women’s Championship after qualifying in 2013.

Asian zones: 

South and Central Zone

Group A: Iran, Maldives, Sri Lanka and Nepal

Group B: Bhutan, Bangladesh and India

ASEAN Zone

Group A: Myanmar, Thailand, Indonesia, Laos and Cambodia

Group B: Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia and Philippines

East Zone

Group A: Japan, Taiwan, Guam and South Korea

Group B: China, North Korea, Hong Kong and Northern Mariana Islands

West Zone

Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Palestine and the UAE