Festivities kick off ahead of U-17 Women’s World Cup

AMMAN — A young girl with her face painted in bright colours took her mark, started running and kicked a football with all her strength past a goalkeeper in the official mascot’s costume and into the goal. 

And so began Thursday night’s festivities for the 2016 FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup.

The tournament will be held in Jordan for the first time in the eight years since it launched. As the local branch of Hyundai Motor Company, which is an international sponsor of FIFA, the Unity Trading Establishment is hosting a series of events to promote the championship. 

“Now we are in a new phase for the Jordanian nation. We [are hosting] the World Cup, whether under 17 or over 17,” Majdi Nashashibi, the vice president of Unity Trading Establishment, told The Jordan Times. 

The company invited the national U-17 women’s football team to an event at their main showroom in Amman on Wednesday, where the FIFA World Cup trophy was on show. 

The “trophy tour” was attended by around 300 to 400 people, according to Nashashibi, and continued on Thursday evening. 

“It’s the first time [the trophy is] in the Arab world. This is the first time in which [people] can have the chance to have... a picture along with the original cup,” Nashashibi said. 

Everybody loves football, so “this is the right way to get through to them”, he added. 

A group of young men gathered around the trophy in the showroom on Thursday night, taking selfies and group photographs. One of them, Hamza Al Kattan, said he wasn’t an avid football fan but had seen the event on Facebook and decided to attend. 

“It’s something amazing, when you love your country and you see it becoming famous around the world, and everybody is coming from all around to your country,” he said. “That makes you love your country much more.”

The festivities will continue after the tournament begins on September 30 with a “fan zone” at the King Hussein Park that will be open until the tournament ends on October 21. 

Sixteen national teams will compete for the World Cup in a total of 32 matches held in six stadiums in Amman, Irbid and Zarqa.

Jordan will play Spain in the opening of the tournament.

The draw for the group stage of the championship put the national team in Group A, facing Spain, Mexico and New Zealand.