It represents a small step on a long road, but Thursday could be remembered as a historic day for UAE women’s football.

For the first time, a women’s team organised by the UAE Football Association will compete in a tournament that includes sides from outside the region when the Emiratis take on Latvia in the eight-nation Aphrodite Cyprus Cup.

While their male counterparts basked in the acclaim for their performance at the recent Asian Cup in Australia, a group of female Emiratis have been training quietly at the FA headquarters ahead of this tournament on the west coast of the Republic of Cyprus.

Previous UAE women’s teams, such as the one that won the Western Asia Football Federation (Waff) championship in Abu Dhabi in 2011, were created for short periods for specific, non-Fifa-sanctioned competitions.

The team in Cyprus hopes to get a Fifa ranking and to become part of the global women’s football and compete for a place in elite competitions such as the Women’s World Cup, to be held in Canada this summer.

The Cyprus tournament presents an opportunity for players, such as Afra Ahmad, to showcase their skills and, more importantly, improve them, at a level that is not always accessible for Emirati players.

“In the near future we have no official matches for the national team, so we have to concentrate on the tournament in Cyprus,” Ahmad said.

“Our primary aim is to get officially ranked at international level, which will allow us to take part in Fifa competitions.

“We are still at the start of our journey and we must take it step by step.

“Of course, we are not going there to lose but give our all and to perform in a manner we can be proud of.”

The striker said she is grateful for support from the FA and the preparations made for the eight-day tournament.

Last week, the acting general manager of the FA, Ali Hamad, visited the squad as they trained in Al Khawaneej, in Dubai, to meet the players and express his support and that of Yousef Al Serkal, the FA president.

Hamad told the 22-woman side the FA is “delighted with the improving form of the squad” and wished them well “in the challenge ahead”.

Hamad also revealed that the country’s leadership and FA will spare no expense to back women’s football and to ensure the right preparation is provided to reach all its targets.

It is a message not lost on the players.

“Visits like this give us all the motivation we need to double our efforts to reach the required standards,” Ahmad said.

Another of the players, Nayla Ibrahim, said she can see great benefit from this event.

“Of course, we give this tournament huge importance despite it being a friendly event,” Ibrahim said. “We hope to gain experience from taking part and from interacting with different football schools, which will benefit us and improve our capabilities.”

The tournament will see Bahrain also take part and initially included Qatar before they were replaced by Azerbaijan.

The Emiratis play Greece on Friday and Lebanon on Sunday.

The progress of women’s football in neighbouring GCC countries can only be good news for the UAE team.

More friendly internationals would likely raise the standard of the game as well as competitiveness in the region and, as Gulf Cup competitions at men’s senior, U23, beach and futsal level already exist, it is reasonable to expect a women’s Gulf Cup in the future.

Tasked with coaching the squad since last year is the 47-year-old Tunisian Samir Al Andaluse, whose CV includes coaching male age-group sides in his home country and serving as an assistant coach to the Tunisian national team that qualified to the 2011 African Cup of Nations in Gabon. He also has led Al Jazira’s Under 17 team here.

Al Andaluse also has a fine record with the Tunisian women’s team, which he took to the 2008 African Nations Cup and to third place in the Arab women’s championship in 2006.

He has laid down a stringent training regime for the Emirati women, who have trained three times a week for the past three months.

The UAE side has players across a wide age range.

One of the youngest is Mariam Daoud, 16, who has risen through the U14 and U16 ranks to join the senior squad. She has already taken part in the 2013 Waff Championship, 2014 Asian Cup qualifiers in Bangladesh and the 2014 Waff Championships in Jordan.

Her case can be seen as an indication of the FA’s intent to nurture Emirati female players from a young age, as reflected in a squad full of native talent.

Ibrahim said she tells her teammates that “wearing the UAE badge is a huge honour for us”.

“We have to focus on improving our standards and achieving our goals,” she said.

“We have to be of one heart, and we have to be patient and give even more effort to realise our dreams.”

akhaled@thenational.ae

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