From FIFA

Ethiopia have made a bright start in their bid to reach a first-ever FIFA World Cup™, collecting four points from a possible six. But the excitement those two results have created is nevertheless being superseded by the fever surrounding the country’s women, who are off to the CAF African Women’s Championship later this year.

“There is no doubt that the most popular team in Ethiopia now is the women, even though the men played very well last month in the World Cup qualifiers,” said a proud Ethiopia Football Federation President Salihu Gebremariam. “We are great believers in what FIFA President Sepp Blatter said a few years ago: that the future of football is feminine.”

It is not the maiden time that the Ethiopia women’s team has qualified for the continental finals, but the first since the end of the nation’s lengthy suspension from the international game. Lucy, as the side is nicknamed after a hominin specimen discovered in the 1970s and estimated to have lived 3.2 million years ago, beat Tanzania in June to reach the eight-team tournament, which will unfold in Equatorial Guinea from 28 October to 11 November.

FIFA organised a women’s Com-unity seminar in Addis Ababa to add further impetus and momentum to the excitement around the team, and it has been met with an overwhelmingly positive response. Around 100 delegates attended the three-day event this past week, along with figures from the leadership of women’s football in the country, regional organisers, many of the national team players and coaches.

They were joined by federal sports officials, representatives from the country’s successful National Olympic Committee, organisers from non-government organisations and charities, representatives from the private sector and by media members.

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