Gulf Times
Qatar Women’s Sports Committee organised, at its headquarters in co-operation with the Qatar Football Association, the activities for the Grassroots Festival to discover talented players.
Nearly 90 female students under the age of 14, representing six primary schools – Al-Rifaa, Al-Shifa, Juwairiya, Mesaieed, Taiba and Umm Salal Muhammad Primary Schools – participated in the festival.
The festival, in its fourth edition in Qatar, was organised under the slogan “For the Game. For the World”, which is the slogan of FIFA and is organised in many countries with the participation of continental federations and member associations that have already developed a football program for schools to discover talent.
Assistant Secretary of the Women’s Sports Committee Maha al-Abdul Jabbar praised the attendance of the students at the festival and said it will prompt organisers to hold more such events in the future. “The goal of the festival is to select football talents from public and private schools and raise the level of women players and motivate them to practice football. The committee is working to encourage girls to participate in such festivals in order to motivate them and their parents. This year’s festival is the fourth in Qatar after it was held in 2010, 2012, 2014,” she said. This year’s festival was held for girls born in 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008. Maha pointed out that the festival is accredited by the AFC and organised by the committee in order to discover the players of the Qatari teams. It was also attended by a large number of Qatari national team coaches to choose the new players.