Girls Football Academy

Deep inside the Bourj al-Barajneh Palestinian refugee camp, the evening sun glows through the wire fence from behind a mosque and the ramshackle houses, piled up like scruffy lego. The Girls Football Academy, Lebanon's first all-female football club, are well underway with their evening training session at Ansar football ground, a decent facility with a full-sized astroturf pitch and no shortage of equipment.

Sent to the southern suburbs on an assignment for TimeOut magazine, I arrived and introduced myself to Walid, a former semi-pro in France and co-founder along with his girlfriend and first team player Nadia. Both were welcoming and enthusiastic about their club, which, in its first season since being formed last Autumn, has already shot to the upper reaches of the national league. Although it only contains 8 teams, Lebanon's progressive women's league is the only one of its kind in the Middle East. 'The senior team's results are just a bonus though', Walid said as he returned a stray ball to a game of piggy-in-the-middle. 'The point of the academy is team building. The senior players have to be taught the technical side of the game from scratch, many of them have never played 11-a-side before. Our target is to train girls to play as a team from a younger age, so that one day they will play for their country and defend the colours of Lebanon'.

A few youngsters took a break from their training to speak to me. 'Kifik?' ('How are you?') I asked one small girl. 'Good' she replied shyly, before switching to flawless American English and explaining excitedly how she started playing football with her big brother at the age of three (her current age: 'nine and a half'), and now gets to play three times a week, and it doesn't make her tired even though she has school too. Sophie, the captain of the U14s, said 'I get the feeling you're a Newcastle fan' and looked slightly disappointed when I admitted I didn't share her affection for her favourite Premier League team. She soon forgot this though as she proudly told me about how she was selected to be captain because the coach thought she had 'experience and skill'.

Girls come from relatively long distances to play at the academy in spite of its out-of-the-way location near to Beirut Airport. One lives close to me in the Armenian quarter, another in the city of Jounieh an hour north of the capital. 'What is the mix of religious background?' I asked Walid. 'I honestly couldn't tell you' he answered. 'I've never asked anyone, it's not something that is ever relevant here'.

In a time when elite professional football is characterised by obscenely rich owners, cheating players and idiotic, small-minded fan culture, the beautiful game remains great for its ability to unite different people anywhere in the world. When one day the young players from the Girls Football Academy do defend their country's colours, maybe their country will unite behind them.


Pictures from GFA's league fixture against reigning champions Al-Sadaka, Sunday 13th May. Final score: 0-0.