Somali footballers train at the Golden Girls Football Centre, Somalia's first female football club. GETTY IMAGES
The head of women’s football in Somalia urged FIFA to "take action" after claiming money made available by the world governing body to support the women’s game in her country is not reaching its "intended target," according to Suzanne Wrack of the London GUARDIAN. Shaima Mohamed, "who has been almost single-handedly pushing the cause of women’s football" in one of the world’s "most volatile nations," said, "I have no idea where the money goes." Every national federation is entitled to money from FIFA, with $100,000 of the $500,000 "available for operational costs ringfenced for women’s football, while additional money is available for travel" to women’s tournaments and for special projects which can be related to women’s football. The Somali federation "has not responded to requests for comment." Mohamed believes federation members "are unwilling to back the women’s game because they fear extremists who oppose it." The women’s football department at the Somali FA "is in effect inactive." Mohamed said that the federation "gave her an official title but turned down her request for an office, equipment and a rent-free field for training." Mohamed: "We do fundraising to support the teams. We do social media campaigns. We get contributions from the community but we don’t have a specific budget that comes to us every year." She called on FIFA to "step in" (GUARDIAN, 1/3).
