Women’s Team

The Bhutan Football Federation conducted a capacity-building workshop for the women’s team coaches in the country, with a main focus on basic coaching principles, at Changjiji Academy, Thimphu on 12th and 13th June 2023. A two-day workshop funded by the Bhutan Olympic Committee. A total of 20 coaches from  Samtse, Bumthang, Thimphu, Punakha, Lhuntse, and Trashigang attended the workshop. The workshop was conducted with the objective of Upskill female coaches and coaches looking after women’s club teams. Review the basic coaching principles and practices. Educate coaches on conducting basic drills Practical session Theory session On the first day, the Technical Director of the Bhutan Football Federation, Mr. Mehmet Fatih Kale, who was also the lead trainer for the workshop, focused on the importance of the coaching process, vision mapping,  components of training, periodization, principles of training, player development, and delayed gratification. On the following day, Mr. Mehmet focused on principles of attack and defence, mass protocol, lactate recovery protocol, player identification, and bias in coaching. Course Revision “We are satisfied with the contents of the workshop, we got to learn new concepts, and we were brought back to our first memories when we first attended the coaching course,” said Sherub Gyelmo, the head coach of Thimphu Women’s FC and a participant in the workshop. On the other hand, the participants have requested more practical sessions and that this type of refresher course be conducted twice a year. The two-day workshop ended with the Technical Director tending to the questions from the participants on any matter pertaining to the workshop and coaching or technical-related matters.

Team Bhutan records the highest jump in the FIFA/Coca-Cola Women’s World Ranking with a plus 7 and a staggering record with the biggest move in points with 64.59 in the latest edition of FIFA/ Coca-Cola Women’s World Ranking. In a stunning turn of events, Bhutan has made an extraordinary surge in the FIFA/Coca-Cola Women’s World Ranking. Bhutan ranked 178 in the last updates of the FIFA/Coca-Cola Women’s World Ranking, but as per their latest update, Bhutan is ranked 171 between Saudi Arabia and Belize. “It’s a great achievement for Bhutan, the Bhutan Football Federation, and for women’s football in the country. This result is not just a great achievement for the country; it also shows the level of dedication and hard work shown by the women’s national team. The hike in rank will motivate all the individuals involved in the team and the development of women’s football in the country as a whole,” said Ugen Wangchhuk, General Secretary of the Bhutan Football Federation. Although Bhutan’s junior teams who played in the SAFF Championship couldn’t bring a positive result from the SAFF Championship, the Bhutan Senior National Team did a pretty good job after participating in the Asian qualifiers for the Women’s Olympic Football Tournament Paris 2024, hosted in Uzbekistan. Bhutan lost against the host in the opening match of the qualifiers but bounced back strong, defeating Jordan and Timor-Leste. However, Bhutan’s Women’s National Team couldn’t qualify for the next round of participation in the Women’s Olympic Football Tournament in Paris in 2024 because of the points. Meanwhile, the U20 Women’s National Team also participated in the U20 Asian Cup Qualifiers held in Jordan, where the future stars of women’s football in the country showed their discipline and quality by fighting till the end and winning a game against Mongolia. “I am very ecstatic about the new ranking. Recently, with the launch of the Women’s Strategic Plan, one of the metrics was to improve the ranking by 5 positions, but 7 positions is a major plus, so I am simply proud of our dragon girls, the coaches, and the team involved in this. Further, it highlights the importance of playing international matches,” said Pema Choden Tshering, the Head of Women’s Department. Till date, Bhutan’s highest rank was 113 in the year 2015, while its lowest was 209.

The Women’s National League Qualifiers for 2023 kicked off on 6th May, 2023. The opening match of the qualifiers was played between Samtse WFC and  Ugyen Academy WFC at Samtse Astro Truf. The teams will play a single league format, whereby they will be grouped and each team will host 3 or 4 matches in their home ground, and after every team completes its 7 matches, the top 6 teams will qualify for the WNL 2023 season.A total of eight clubs are participating from different districts of the country.  8 teams participating for the Bhutan Women’s National League, 2023 are: 𝟭. 𝗨𝗔 𝗪𝗙𝗖 𝟮. 𝗧𝗵𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗵𝘂 𝗪𝗙𝗖 𝟯. 𝗚𝗶𝗿𝗹𝘀 𝗔𝗰𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗺𝘆 𝗚𝗲𝗹𝗲𝗽𝗵𝘂(𝗨𝟮𝟬) 𝟰. 𝗥𝗧𝗖 𝗪𝗙𝗖 𝟱. 𝗧𝗿𝗮𝗻𝘀𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁 𝗨𝗧𝗗 𝗟𝗮𝗱𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝟲. 𝗦𝗮𝗺𝘁𝘀𝗲 𝗪𝗙𝗖 𝟳. 𝗕𝘂𝗺𝘁𝗮𝗻𝗴 𝗪𝗙𝗖 𝟴. 𝗚𝗲𝗹𝗲𝗽𝗵𝘂 𝗖𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗪𝗙𝗖 A total of 28 matches will be played and the top 6 team will qualify for the Bhutan Women’s National League, 2023.

Coinciding with the international women’s day, the women’s department of Bhutan Football Federation launched the Bhutan FF girls’ and women’s football strategy 2023-2026 titled, “Sowing the Seeds,” on 8th March, 2023 . Over the years the Women’s Department under the wing of Bhutan Football Federation worked closely with the FIFA Women’s Development Facilitator Mr. Simon Toselli and various stakeholders in the country engaged with women’s football to develop the women’s football strategy plan for the country.  “Its a great milestone for women’s football in the country. With this strategy plan we can achieve a lot more than what we have achieve so far.”- Pema, The head of Women’s Head. However, she also stated that the work is not yet done. It is a 4 year strategy plan and everyone must come and work together to implement the strategy goals and objectives. If you have any further queries on the Strategy Plan, please reach out the women’s department at bffwomenfootball@gmail.com

A new journey  for women’s football in the country… The Bhutan Senior Team will travel to Uzbekistan for the sixth edition of the AFC Women’s Olympic Qualifying Tournament, the quadrennial international football competition organized by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) to determine which women’s national teams from Asia qualify for the Olympic football tournament 2024 Paris.  This year, Women’s Football in Bhutan has embarked on many preambles in the AFC competitions, notably, the first entrance of Bhutan in the U20 Women’s Asian Cup qualifiers in Jordan. The Dragon Girls displayed positive footballing by registering the first win against the Mongolia Women’s team in their final match of the qualifiers and winning lots of praise for their performance. And now, the senior women’s team is going to participate in the AFC Women’s Olympic Qualifying Tournament, an exciting feat for a tiny country comprising just over 7 million people with only a handful of women committed to the field of football mainly due to cultural and traditional drawbacks. However, the football culture in the country is on the rise with lots of improvements in diverse fields and even in women’s football. The Senior Women’s Team of Bhutan’s recent international tournament was the SAFF Women’s Championship held in Nepal last year. Bhutan went on to progress to the knockout stage after their win over Sri Lanka. However, the run was cut short in the semi-finals by Bangladesh with Bhutan conceding 8 goals. The selections of the Senior Women’s National Team started right after the Bhutan Women’s League. A total of 32 players were selected from the clubs of the highest women’s league in the country. The players were shortlisted based on their performance in the league and were put through a lot of physical training and mental preparedness by the officials of the women’s team. After a month of intense training the final 22 players for the national squad were selected by the selection committee. When asked about the selection of the players the head coach of the senior women’s national team, Mrs. Kung Suk Hong stated that the players are from diverse backgrounds, some players work in an institution, some are sports instructors and most of them are students, who played in the national league last season, who are very enthusiastic about football and most of them are young and energetic. Mrs. Kung Suk Hong We selected the players based on the fitness, touches, and the understanding of the game. Most of the players had international experiences and were already playing in the national team however, the selection team selected a few players who didn’t play for the national squad before. Apart from the same names in the squad of previous years four new players joined the squad these year. Ms. Sonam Lhamo the versatile midfielder who begged the most valuable player in last seasons Women’s National League is also selected in this year’s squad. She stated that it’s been a long time since she has played the international matches. She last played in an international match during SAFF U19 against Bangladesh in the year 2021 and she felt privileged once again to represent the nation on a bigger stage. She hopes to showcase her skills and her performance like she did during the league and she promises to give much more than what she has been doing. Sonam Lhamo Tashi Wangmo Karma Yuden Rigzin Wangmo   On the contrary the captain of the Senior women’s team Ms. Pema stated that they are new in the sense that it is their first appearance for the Senior Team for a few but they all grew up at the Academy with some having been in football for some time now so in that sense, they are not really new to the team per se. We played together for years. What differentiates the youth teams from the Senior is the mental strength and the responsibility of the players. These players will need to play for the younger generations. So, my role as the captain is to help strengthen their mentality and understand the responsibility of playing for the Senior team. Ms. Pema Choden Tshering Along with captaining the team, she is also the head of women’s football and putting on the hat of the Women’s Football head, she stated that the competition is a great opportunity for the girls to understand and further motivate themselves in terms of their player development. “We are playing the Champions of Central (Uzbekistan) and West Asia (Jordan), and hence will get a better understanding of their playing style and level. It is different watching their matches on tv or YouTube and playing them. This will be the first time we will be playing teams ranked in the top 100, in fact even in the top 50 (Uzbekistan 49th). It will be a very difficult job and we will have to be mentally strong, a trait we want our players to develop at a very early age.” She also stated that she is excited about playing with a team from West, Central and East Asia. “I have been playing football ever since I can remember but never played against teams from these regions. It has only been with south Asian countries. I am excited to learn, be challenged and take the learnings from this tournament to future games.” The head coach of the Bhutan Senior Women’s National Team Head coach Mrs. Hong also stated that the girls are well prepared for the tournament and the team has worked on position, tactics and defense. She hopes to win at least 2 games and draw one in the tournament. Bhutan Senior Women’s National Team will travel to Uzbekistan on the 24th of March 2023 and play a friendly match with a local club in Uzbekistan before the actual tournament kicks off. Bhutan sits with the likes of Uzbekistan, Jordan and Timor-Leste. Bhutan will face Uzbekistan in the opening match of  Group A on the 5th of April 2023,  followed by Jordan