Cambodia Women's National Football Team

The Cambodia women's national football team represents Cambodia in international women's association football and is governed by Football Federation of Cambodia (FFC).
While the national federation was founded in 1933 and has received support from Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) and Asian Football Confederation (AFC), the development of women's football has been slow with football not the most popular women's sport in the country. The women's first national championship was not held until 2010. The senior team had its first match in June 2018. They have participated in three editions of the AFF Women's Championship, defeating Timor-Leste twice and drawing a match against Laos.

The under-16 national team, coached by Sam Schweingruber, played in the nation's first FIFA recognised women's international in May 2009 when they played Laos, with Nith Pean being the first woman to score a goal in international play. The under-14 team is also coached by Schweingruber, and participated in the 2011 AFC U-14 Girls' Festival of Football in Vietnam. The following year, the under-13 team competed in the 2012 AFC Girls Football Festival.

History

The national association was founded in 1933 and became a FIFA affiliate in 1954. The national federation is a member of ASEAN. There are no full-time staff members employed by the federation to look after women's football and representation of women's football as a federation interest is not guaranteed by the federation.

AFC's AID27 programme provides Cambodia a maximum of US$24,000 a year between 2008 and 2012 to support women's football in the country. FIFA-supported grassroots development of the women's game also exists. FIFA grass roots development officer Sam Schweingruber said of this: "In Cambodia, it was unthinkable at the outset for girls to take part in the Grassroots programme. We managed to push that through, and now it's seen as perfectly normal. And that is bound to help in boosting the confidence of young Cambodian women, and making them feel more important."

Football for women ranks between the 5th and 10th most popular sport in the country, though its popularity is increasing. Space to play sport is an issue facing all sports in the country. Between 2000 and 2006, there were no registered female football players in the country, and none of the 65 football clubs in the country were open to women.

In 2007, there were only two Cambodian women, Gne Kom' Sorth and Lee Heang, who had a FIFA-approved D-license football coaching badge. Both were recruited through FIFA's Spirit of Soccer program and worked to bring the game to areas with land mines. In 2008, the Mine Risk Education Soccer tournament was held and several girls under-14 teams participated. The first women's national championship was held in 2010. Rights to broadcast the 2011 Women's World Cup in the country were bought by the Cambodian Broadcasting Service. By 2012, between Battambang or Phnom Penh, there were 400 girls playing in organised clubs.

The progress of women's football in the country was described by FIFA in 2009 as historic. In 2009, the Com-Unity Women's Football Seminar was held Phnom Penh. At the three-day seminar, the Football Federation of Cambodia indicated their support for women's football. A follow-up event was supported by FIFA in 2010.

Chheun Nipha from Cambodia participated in a 2012 AFC 'C' Coaching Certificate Course organised as part of the AFC U-13 Girls' Football Tournament 2012. In 2012, the women's team participated in the Charity Cup, a competition designed to help with fundraising to send a team to compete at the Homeless World Cup. In May 2012, an under-15 women's football festival was held in Cambodia, organised by the German embassy and German Business Group Cambodia, and held at the University of Battambang. The competition was won by the Mighty Girls in a 2–0 win over CFI.

Cambodia played their first FIFA-recognised matches in 2018 at the AFF Women's Championship. They won their first match, a 12–0 victory over Timor-Leste on 30 June 2018. They lost their other three group stages matches, all without scoring another goal. Cambodia entered the AFF Women's Championship again in 2019 and 2022. They lost all their group stage games in 2019. They fared better in 2022, defeating Timor-Leste again and drawing their match against Laos by a 1–1 score. Nevertheless, they did not advance out of the group stage. Beyond the AFF Women's Championship, Cambodia participated in the Southeast Asian Games in 2021, losing both their games and not scoring any goals. The captain of the team in their first tournament in 2018 was Hout Koemhong, who grew up in an orphanage and trained at SALT Academy for six years. The captain in 2022 was Ban Cheavey.

Team image

The country's kit colours are blue, white and red shirts, white shorts, and red socks.

Cambodia women's national youth teams

Under-16

The Cambodia women's national under-16 football team has been coached by Sam Schweingruber since it was created in 2009. The team played in their first FIFA recognised and sponsored international in spring of 2009 when they played Laos on 22 May. The team travelled to the game via bus. Nith Pean scored a goal when her team was down 2–0 to bring the score to 2–1. Her goal was the first ever goal scored by a Cambodian woman in a FIFA recognised match. That year, the team also played a match against Singapore. Two players on the 2009 under-16 team were Nin and Vesna, a pair of sisters from the SALT Academy. The sisters had been sexually exploited in Thailand but while at the Academy, they developed their skills. Nin eventually became the captain of the team.

Under-14

Kauw was a member of the Cambodia women's national under-14 football team in 2011. The assistant coach was Chhoeurn Nipha and the head coach was Sam Schweingruber. The team had a variety of players, including those who attended a football academy, school drop outs who returned just to play and girls from orphanages. The country participated in the AFC U-14 Girls' Festival of Football in Vietnam, where like the other ten participating countries, they fielded two teams. This was the first time the country participated in the event. At the competition, Cambodia lost to the Philippines 3–0. Some of the players who participated had never left the country before.

Under-13

The Cambodia women's national under-13 football team competed in the June 2012 AFC Girls Football Festival against other national sides from Thailand, Myanmar, the Philippines, Guam and Vietnam. The team played their first match against the Philippines. Cambodia lost to Vietnam 0–1 in the bronze medal game. Julie Teo, AFC's Head of Women's Football said of the event: "The quality of teams is good and the tournament has a lot of close matches. Cambodia had improved a lot from the first day." Srey Yuen was the captain in 2012. Many of the players in 2012 were drawn from the CFI club side. The team is coached by Sam Schweingruber.

Sopha Kol, secretary general of FFC, said: "For the very first time, very young Cambodian girls represented Cambodia in a regional tournament like this one. ... It doesn't matter if they win or lose as long as they start. If they don't start now, their potential will be ignored." AFC U-13 Girl Football Tournament 2012, each game had two sessions with 25 minutes each and 10 minutes' break while the football field is 80 metres long and 60 metres wide.

Results and fixtures

The following is a list of match results in the last 12 months, as well as any future matches that have been scheduled.
;Legend

2022

Source: Soccerway

Competitive record

AFF Women's Championship

Southeast Asian Games

Source: Soccerway

Head-to-head record

Source: Soccerway

See also

Leagues

* Cambodian Women's League
* Cambodian Premier League
* Cambodian League 2

Cups

* Hun Sen Cup
* Cambodian League Cup
* Cambodian Super Cup

National teams

Men
* Cambodia national football team
* Cambodia national under-23 football team
* Cambodia national under-21 football team
Futsal
* Cambodia national futsal team

Other

* Football in Cambodia
* Cambodian Football Federation

References

External links

Cambodia women's national football team
– official website a
FFCambodia.com

Cambodia
a
FIFA.com

{{Football in Cambodia

Asian women's national association football teams