News Center — The Sudanese Football Association has begun procedures for selecting the women’s under‑17 national team, in addition to the senior women’s national team.

The Women’s Football Committee of the association explained that trials will continue in several cities, including the capital Khartoum and Port Sudan, with the aim of discovering talent and forming women’s national teams across different age groups.

In early 2002, the idea of women’s football in Sudan began when Sara Edward established a women’s team that attracted great interest from many Sudanese women and girls. However, Sudan witnessed the launch of the first women’s football league on September 30, 2019.

Sudan joined FIFA in 1948, and subsequently founded the Confederation of African Football (CAF) along with Egypt, South Africa, and Ethiopia. However, attention was focused on men’s football, even though FIFA requires countries that host men’s football leagues to also allocate a league for women.

One woman broke the traditions of conservative Sudanese and Eastern society and entered the pitch by coaching a men’s team—a first in her country, in Africa, and across the Middle East.

Salma Al‑Majdi’s coaching of a men’s team marked a qualitative shift in the history of women in sports, particularly in football, as she became the first Sudanese, first African, and first hijabi woman to lead a men’s football team, and only the second woman globally to do so.