FIFA Muslim women's program working in Pakistan

Pakistani Punjab’s women football players will get some fine coaching tips from German coach Monika Staab who will hold a local five-day coaching clinic after successful clinics in Karachi and Quetta. Former FIFA referee Arif Siddiqui and Uzma Zaidi will act as the coordinators of the clinic which concludes on 10 August. Monika’s next assignment will be to train and pick talented women of Peshawar, FATA, Northern Areas, AJK and Islamabad from 11-15 August. She will also be among a 4-member selection committee that will pick thirty-five best women football players during the upcoming National Championship to be held at Islamabad’s Jinnaj Stadium from 16-24 August.

Monika said during the training camps the players were physically sound and had a lot of passion to play. She also pointed out that the short camps were not enough for them to learn what they needed to. “Pakistan women’s team will take years to make an impression at the world level,” she added. She said FIFA had taken the initiative to promote women’s football in the entire world and they had also chalked out a good strategy for the same efforts in Muslim countries. “FIFA had allowed Muslim women to play football according to their traditional values wearing scarf and full trouser pants instead of shorts,” she told the Daily Times.