Amman Club end Shabab Urdun’s domination of Women’s Football League

AMMAN — Amman Club won the 10th edition of the Women’s Football League after ending the domination of record seven-time League champs Shabab Urdun.

Amman, who had won in 2010, came back to complete an unbeatably impressive season with a 5-3 win over titleholders Shabab Urdun. The event also included Orthodox, who came in third, and Istiqlal, who were relegated. 

The event was played in a shortened two-leg format to allow the regrouping of the national team for Asian and Olympic qualifiers. Clubs had a short time to regroup after the national team topped Asian Group A qualifiers and reached Round 2 of the qualifiers — the first phase of the qualifying journey to the 2016 Olympics.

It is Jordan’s second time in the qualifiers after the 2012 London Olympic qualifiers when it advanced to Round 2. Jordan beat Uzbekistan 2-0, Hong Kong 1-0 and Palestine 6-0. Group leaders will join Vietnam and Thailand in Round 2, from which the top team will move to Round 3 to play the top five seeded teams — Japan, Australia, South Korea, North Korea and China — which eventually qualifies the top two to represent Asia at the Olympic Games. 

The women’s national team went up two spots to 54th in the latest FIFA World Rankings and is leading Arab teams and is 11th in the Asian continent. 

Team officials hope the squad will make up for a disappointing 2014 season when the senior women’s team exited Round 1 of the 2014 Asian Games and similarly exited the Round 1 of their first AFC 2014 Women’s Asian Cup, where they were also the only Arab team. The squad is reigning West Asian champs after winning the title with Iran, Lebanon and the UAE missing the event last year.

Jordan will host the U-17 Women’s World Cup in 2016 and is now gearing up to prepare four stadiums as well as 16 practice fields. Jordan beat bids from Uruguay, South Africa, Ireland and Bahrain.

Jordanian women’s football team has progressively made its mark regionally.  In 2006, Jordan was the first Arab team to qualify to the 2007 3rd AFC U-19 Women’s Championship finals.