Arunava about Football A look at football & the world through my eyes!
Related Articles
The first season of the Lao Women’s League concluded last month when Young Elephants FC were crowned inaugural champions.
With support from the Lao Football Federation (LFF) and FIFA Forward, the 2023 Lao Women’s League was a pilot programme to enlarge the participation as well as engagement of the new stakeholders to the development of women’s football in Laos.
The only landlocked nation in southeast Asia and with a population of less than eight million, Laos had recently invested in junior female football and female national team development and needed a women’s league to accelerate and continue their growth.
Women’s football in Laos had been on a steady growth pattern from 2010 to 2019 but the Covid-19 pandemic put an end to the progress that was made and forced the nation to start again from scratch.
“We have been working so hard on women’s football in Laos: first we established the women’s national teams, then we had a youth team, but try-outs and training camp only lasted for one or two months, which was not enough,” said Kanya Keomany, General Secretary of Lao Football Federation and FIFA Council member.
“Having a women’s football league was the answer we needed. We spoke with many stakeholders, as well as a FIFA consultant, and it was suggested to have a consistent and sustainable league.”
The pilot edition of the Lao Women’s League 2023 consisted of eight clubs made-up of 229 participants: 175 players and 54 team officials. Four of the clubs were from the nation’s capital city, Vientiane, with the remaining four clubs from provinces around the country.
It was a successful debut season with a total of 249 goals in 56 matches. Young Elephants FC were the standout with 13 victories from their 14 games along with their star midfielder, Vilinthong Vongsengthong, winning the tournament MVP.
