Cambodia women's national football team
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| Association | Football Federation of Cambodia |
|---|---|
| Confederation | AFC (Asia) |
| Sub-confederation | AFF (Southeast Asia) |
| Head coach | Sam Schweingruber |
| FIFA code | CAM |
The Cambodia women's national football team represents Cambodia in international women's association football and is governed by Football Federation of Cambodia (FFC). As of June 2012[update], no senior women's national team exists though national youth sides, including an under-13, under-14 and under-16 sides, do. While the national federation was founded in 1954 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 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.
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.
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