The National Women Football Championship is the top

cup competition A single-elimination, knockout, or sudden death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of each match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final matc ...

for

women's football Women's football most often refers to: * Women's association football (hannah jones ). Women's football may also refer to: * Women's gridiron football * Women's Australian rules football * Ladies' Gaelic football * Women's rugby league * Women's ...

clubs in Pakistan – designed as an equivalent to the

National Challenge Cup The Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup, commonly known as the U.S. Open Cup (USOC), is a knockout cup competition in men's soccer in the United States of America. It is the oldest ongoing national soccer competition in that country. The 2023 U.S. O ...

for men. It was started in 2005 by the Pakistan Football Federation. Young Rising Stars has been the most successful team in the history of he competition, winning it five times (including four consecutive wins from 2010 to 2013). WAPDA has had the most final appearances (7), winning once and losing six times. The most recent champion is

Pakistan Army The Pakistan Army (, ) is the Army, land service branch of the Pakistan Armed Forces. The roots of its modern existence trace back to the British Indian Army that ceased to exist following the partition of India, Partition of British India, wh ...

, which defended its

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...

title in 2019-20.

History

The first edition was held in

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...

, organised by Pakistan Football Federation (PFF). On 4th August 2010, Pakistan Football Federation President Faisal Saleh Hayat dedicated the Best Player Award of the National Women Football Championship to Misha Dawood, the late

Diya W.F.C. Diya Women Football Club ( ur, ), also referred to as Diya W.F.C., Diya WFC, Diya FC, Diya, Diya Women FC, or DWFC, is a Pakistani women's association football and futsal club based in Karachi. ''Diya'' means Diya (lamp), lamp in Urdu. It is th ...

midfielder. Misha had been on the ill-fated

Airblue Flight 202 Airblue Flight 202 was a scheduled Pakistani domestic passenger flight from Karachi to the nation's capital of Islamabad. On 28 July 2010, the Airbus A321-231 jet airliner serving the flight crashed into Margalla Hills, north of Islamabad's Bena ...

which crashed in the Margalla Hills on 28 July 2010. Due to the political and judicial crisis of 2015 at the PFF, the championship was not held from 2015 to 2018. The 2021 edition was cancelled, no official reason was given, but the decision took place after the Pakistan Football Federation's office was attacked and people inside held hostage by its former president, Syed Ashfaq Hussain Shah, and his group. The championship was interrupted before the knockout stage started.

Format

The number of teams participating has varied through the years. In the

first edition The bibliographical definition of an edition includes all copies of a book printed from substantially the same setting of type, including all minor typographical variants. First edition According to the definition of ''edition'' above, a b ...

, 8 teams took part. In the 2018 edition, 16 teams participated in the tournament, with three departmental teams, four provincial teams, four regional teams and five club teams, divided into four groups, winner of each group will earn a spot in semi-finals. For the 2021 competition, 20 teams divided into four groups were originally supposed to participate in 59 scheduled matches, but one of them withdrew before the tournament commenced.

Tournament summary

List of finals

* ^g Guest teams invited by Pakistan Football Federation, Afghanistan represented Afghanistan and Malavan BA represented Iran.

Performance by club

* ^g Guest teams invited by Pakistan Football Federation, Afghanistan represented Afghanistan and Malavan BA represented Iran.

References

External links

Pakistan Football Federation official websiteFootball PakistanNational Women Championship
{{Top level women's association football leagues around the world National Women Football Championship Women Pakistan Women's sports leagues in Pakistan Sports leagues established in 2005 2005 establishments in Pakistan