ABU DHABI // Less than 24 hours after Sepp Blatter appealed to Iranian authorities to end the ban on females attending football matches in the Islamic Republic, the Fifa president said the UAE has expressed interest in hosting an international women’s football tournament in the near future.
Shortly before the flag of Fifa was lowered at Mohammed bin Zayed Stadium for the final time on Friday night, following a successful Under 17 World Cup, Blatter told reporters the host country is already planning its next global football move.
This month’s event marked the latest in a string of Fifa events held in the Emirates. The Under 20 World Cup was held in 2003 and Abu Dhabi hosted successive Club World Cups in 2009 and 2010.
Now, Blatter said, the country is eager to host a women’s event.
“I have already expressed my pleasure at the organisation of the UAE, which is at a very high level,” said Blatter, who earlier in the day enjoyed lunch with a delegation of UAE officials, including Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak, the Minister of Culture, Youth and Community Development.
“They are eager to organise other competitions, but they have already had the Fifa U20 and now U17, so what they should do, and they are interested in, is go for a women’s football tournament here, which would be a novelty.
“We already have a had a women’s event in a country with a different culture: Azerbaijan hosted the U17s women last year.”
Blatter added that the UAE delegation also expressed an interest in “having a part of the big World Cup”, but said the country will have to wait because of the governing body’s continental policy that sees the World Cup host country rotated around the six continental confederations.
gmeenaghan@thenational.ae
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