View source for Seychelles women's national football team

{{Infobox national football team
| Name              = Seychelles
| Badge             = Seychelles Football Federation.png
| Nickname           = 
| Association       = [[Seychelles Football Federation]]
| Sub-confederation = [[Council of Southern Africa Football Associations|COSAFA]] <br> ([[Southern Africa]])
| Confederation     = [[Confederation of African Football|CAF]] ([[Africa]])
| Coach              = 
| Most caps          = 
| Top scorer         = 
| FIFA Trigramme     = SEY
| FIFA Rank          = n/a
| FIFA max           = n/a
| FIFA max date      = 
| FIFA min           = n/a
| FIFA min date      = 
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| First game         = {{nowrap begin}} {{fb|Seychelles}} 1–4 Mauritius {{flagicon|Mauritius}} <br> (2005) 
| Largest win        = 
| Largest loss       = {{nowrap begin}} {{fb|Seychelles}} 0–9 Réunion {{flagicon|Réunion}} <br> (2005) 
| World cup apps     = 
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| Algarve cup apps   = 
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| type=women
}}
The '''Seychelles women's national football team''' is the national team of the [[Seychelles]]. It does not officially exist and has not played in a [[FIFA]] recognised match.  The national team has played in two eighty-minute long games in 2005 in a tournament hosted by [[Mauritius]], with the Seychelles losing both matches.  An official under-17 national team exists and had regular training sessions in 2006.   The sport faces several development problems inside the country including a lack of popularity for the sport, and few female players and teams. Women have gained football leadership positions in the country with one coaching a men's team and another umpiring international matches.  There are other development issues for the sport that are ones facing the whole of Africa.

==Background==
The [[Seychelles Football Federation]] was founded in 1979, and became a FIFA affiliate in 1986.<ref name=fifabook>{{cite journal|coauthors=FIFA|title=Women's Football Today|year=2006|url=http://www.fifa.com/mm/document/afdeveloping/women/93/77/21/factsheets.pdf|accessdate=5 June 2012|page=171}}</ref><ref name=goalsprogram4>{{cite web|accessdate=5 June 2012|publisher=FIFA|url=http://www.fifa.com/mm/goalproject/sey_eng.pdf|date=21 April 2009|page=4|title=Goal! Football: Seychelles }}</ref> Women's football is represented in the federation by specific mandate and currently they employee one full time employee to look after the women's game.<ref name=fifabook/>

Football is the third most popular women's sport in the country, trailing behind [[volleyball]].<ref name=fifabook/><ref name=coachmens/>  In 2006 there were overall 185  registered female players (100 adult players and 85 youth players).<ref name=fifabook/>  There are also a few women's club, eight senior women's club as of 2009<ref name=goalsprogram4/> and a national competition takes place yearly.<ref name=leaguestuff>{{cite news|url=http://www.nation.sc/index.php?art=2466|date= 6 April 2005|title=Olympia Coast clinch fourth Patron's Cup title in five years|accessdate=8 June 2012|location=Seychelles|newspaper=Seychelles Nation}}</ref>  Girl's football was not played in school based competitions in 2006,<ref name=fifabook/> but started in 2009.<ref name=goalsprogram4/> The first woman's football tournament occurred in the late 1990s, with the first tournaments being seven-a-side football before an eleven-a-side tournament started.<ref name=coachmens/>  The Patron's Cup, the major women's competition in the country that is the final for the national league, was won by Olympia Coast in 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2005. The cup was won by Dolphins in 2004.<ref name="leaguestuff"/> The competition and some of the teams underwent a name change with United Sisters becoming the Lioness and the Patron's Cup becoming the Federation Cup. In 2007, 2009 and 2011, the Lioness won the Federation Cup.<ref name=unitedwins>{{cite news|url=http://www.nation.sc/index.php?art=23231|date=21 April 2011|title=Lioness Federation Cup winners|accessdate=8 June 2012|location=Seychelles|newspaper=Seychelles Nation}}</ref> In 2002, Cynthia Sanders became the first woman from the country to attain an assistant referee international license.<ref name=in20202>{{cite news|url=http://www.nation.sc/index.php?art=24223|location=Seychelles|newspaper=Seychelles Nation|accessdate=8 June 2012|title=Referee Sanders performs well at women's Cosafa tourney|date=21 November 2011}}</ref> Rights to broadcast the 2011 Women's World Cup in the country were bought by the [[African Union of Broadcasting]] and [[Supersport International]].<ref name=televisionrights>{{cite news|title=FIFA Women's World Cup Germany 2011TM Media Rights Licensees|accessdate=21 April 2012|url=http://www.fifa.com/mm/document/affederation/tv/01/42/89/65/fifawomensworldcupgermany2011mediarightslicenseeslist.pdf|year=2011|publisher=FIFA}}</ref> In 2011, Sanders became the first woman from the country to referee an international match when she officiated a match between Malawi and Zimbabwe in [[Harare]], [[Zimbabwe]].<ref name=in20202/> In 2012, the country had their first woman sign a contract for and coach a men's team.<ref name=coachmens>{{cite web|accessdate=8 June 2012|url=http://www.nation.sc/index.php?art=26739|location=Seychelles|newspaper=Seychelles Nation|title=Up Close with&nbsp;... Elsie Ernesta, first Seychellois woman to coach a men's football team |date= 6 March 2012}}</ref>

Early development of the women's game at the time colonial powers brought football to the African continent was limited, as colonial powers in the region tended to make concepts of patriarchy and women's participation in sports was limited as a result.<ref name="Alegi2010" /> The lack of later development of the national teams on a wider international level is symptomatic of most of African teams and a result of several factors, including  limited access to education, poverty amongst women in the wider society, and fundamental inequality present in the society that occasionally allows for female specific [[human rights]] abuses.<ref name="Williams2007-186">{{cite book|author=Jean Williams|title=A Beautiful Game: International Perspectives on Women's Football|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=VuIp04RvKX8C&pg=PA157|accessdate=13 April 2012|date=15 December 2007|publisher=Berg|isbn=978-1-84520-674-1|page=186}}</ref>  When quality female football players are developed, they tend to leave for greater opportunities abroad.<ref name="Kuhn2011">{{cite book|author=Gabriel Kuhn|title=Soccer Vs. the State: Tackling Football and Radical Politics|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=BwmsLxiWvnwC&pg=PA34|accessdate=13 April 2012|date=24 February 2011|publisher=PM Press|isbn=978-1-60486-053-5|page=34}}</ref> Continent wide, funding is also an issue, with most development money coming from [[FIFA]], not the national football association.<ref name="Kuhn2011" /> Future success for women's football in Africa is dependent on improved facilities and access by women to these facilities.  Attempting to commercialise the game and make it commercially viable is not the solution, as demonstrated by the current existence of many youth and women's football camps held throughout the continent.<ref name="Alegi2010">{{cite book|author=Peter Alegi|title=African Soccerscapes: How a Continent Changed the World's Game|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=NrW50yHkr0EC|accessdate=22 April 2012|date=2 March 2010|publisher=Ohio University Press|isbn=978-0-89680-278-0}}</ref>

==Team==
In 1985, almost no country in the world had a women's national football team<ref name="McDougall2012">{{cite book|author=Chrös McDougall|title=Soccer|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=2nrhG5ovUSQC&pg=PA45|accessdate=13 April 2012|date=1 January 2012|publisher=ABDO|isbn=978-1-61783-146-1|page=45}}</ref> including the Seychelles who did play in a single FIFA sanctioned match between 1950 and June 2012.<ref name=fifsanctiongames>{{cite web|url=http://www.fifa.com/associations/association=sey/fixturesresults/gender=f/index.html |title=Seychelles: Fixtures and Results |publisher=FIFA |year=2012 |accessdate=13 April 2012}}</ref>  In 2006, the country did not have an official FIFA recognised senior a team,<ref name=fifabook/> a situation unchanged by 2009.<ref name=goalsprogram4/> In 2005, they competed in a three nation tournament hosted by Mauritius, where all games were 80 minutes in length. They lost to Mauritius  1–4.  They lost to [[Réunion]] 0–9.  Overall, they finished last, scoring only one goal in the competition.<ref name=2005-mauritius-host>{{cite web|url=http://www.rsssf.com/tablesw/wom-mauri05.html |title=Women Tournament (Mauritius) 2005 |publisher=Rsssf.com |date=10 September 2005 |accessdate=13 April 2012}}</ref> In 2005, [[Zambia]] was supposed to host a regional COSAFA women's football tournament, with ten teams agreeing to send teams including [[South Africa women's national football team|South Africa]], [[Zimbabwe women's national football team|Zimbabwe]], [[Mozambique women's national football team|Mozambique]], [[Malawi women's national football team|Malawi]], Seychelles, [[Mauritius women's national football team|Mauritius]], [[Madagascar women's national football team|Madagascar]], [[Zambia women's national football team|Zambia]], [[Botswana women's national football team|Botswana]], [[Namibia women's national football team|Namibia]], [[Lesotho women's national football team|Lesotho]] and [[Swaziland women's national football team|Swaziland]].<ref name=zambiatourney>{{cite news|title=Zambia to Host Cosafa Women's Soccer Tourney|newspaper=The Post|location=Lusaka, Zambia|date=16 August  2005|first=Augustine|last=Mukoka|accessdate=23 April 2012|url=http://docs.newsbank.com/openurl?ctx_ver=z39.88-2004&rft_id=info:sid/iw.newsbank.com:AUNB:ZPOB&rft_val_format=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:ctx&rft_dat=10C31A2E66964BC0&svc_dat=InfoWeb:aggregated5&req_dat=1053B823C33F21F9}}</ref>   Seychelles did not record a match in the event.<ref name=fifsanctiongames/> The country did not have a team competing in the 2010 African Women's Championships.<ref name=2010-african-women-championship>{{cite web|url=http://www.cafonline.com/competition/african-women-championship_2010/results |title=Fixtures&nbsp;— African Women Championship 2010 – CAF |publisher=CAF |date= |accessdate=13 April 2012}}</ref> or at the 2011 All Africa Games.<ref name=all-africa-2011-rounds>{{cite web|url=http://www.cafonline.com/competition/all-africa-games-women_2011/groups |title=Groups & standings&nbsp;— All Africa Games women 2011 – CAF |publisher=CAF |date= |accessdate=13 April 2012}}</ref> In March 2012, the team was not ranked in the world by FIFA.<ref name=world-rank-fifa>{{cite web|url=http://www.fifa.com/worldranking/rankingtable/women/index.html |title=The FIFA Women's World Ranking |publisher=FIFA.com |date=25 September 2009 |accessdate=13 April 2012}}</ref>

The country has an official under-17 team, the [[Seychelle women's national under-17 football team]].  In 2006, they had two training sessions a week but had yet to record an official FIFA recognised match.<ref name=fifabook/>

==References==
{{portal|Women's sport|Association football}}
{{reflist|30em}}

==External links==
*[http://www.sff.sc/ Seychelles Football Federation official website]
*[http://www.fifa.com/associations/association=sey/index.html Seychelles] at FIFA.com

{{International women's football}}
{{CAF women's teams}}
{{Football in Seychelles}}

[[Category:African national association football teams]]
[[Category:National sports teams of Seychelles]]
[[Category:Seychelles national football team]]
[[Category:Women's national association football teams]]