Algeria women's national football team

The Algeria women's national football team (Arabic: منتخب الجزائر لكرة القدم للسيدات‎) represents Algeria in international women's football. The team is currently ranked 76th in the world in the FIFA women's rankings. The team's highest ranking was 64th, in June 2009.[4] The team plays its home games at the July 5, 1962 Stadium in Algiers and is coached by Radia Fertoul since August 2018. Algeria played its first match on May 14, 1998, against France, and lost 14–0.

Algeria
Nickname(s)الأفناك  (The Fennecs)[1]
AssociationAlgerian Football Federation
Other affiliationUAFA (Arab Nations)
ConfederationCAF (Africa)
Sub-confederationUNAF (North Africa)
Head coachRadia Fertoul[2]
CaptainFatima Sekouane
Top scorerNaima Bouhani (13)
Home stadiumJuly 5, 1962 Stadium
FIFA codeALG
First colours
Second colours
FIFA ranking
Current 79 6 (18 December 2020)[3]
Highest64 (June 2009)
Lowest125 (June 2013)
First international
 France 14–0 Algeria 
(Cesson-Sévigné, France; 14 May 1998)
Biggest win
 Algeria 12–0 Lebanon 
(Alexandria, Egypt; 16 April 2006)
Biggest defeat
 France 14–0 Algeria 
(Cesson-Sévigné, France; 14 May 1998)
Africa Women Cup of Nations
Appearances5 (first in 2004)
Best resultGroup Stage (2004, 2006, 2010, 2014, 2018)

Algeria has never qualified for a World Cup. It has qualified five times for the Africa Women Cup of Nations, in 2004, 2006, 2010, 2014 and 2018, all finishing in group stage.

History

Beginning

The Algerian Football Federation was founded in 1962, after the Algerian Independence. It joined the CAF in 1963 and FIFA in 1964. By this time, no nation in the world had an official women's football team, instead they appeared in the 1970s. Algeria's first recorded match dates back of the late 1990s on 14 May 1998, against France in Cesson-Sévigné. The result was a heavy 0-14 defeat, which is still Algeria's worst result. Although the team was formed in 1998, a futsal team had played a game with Morocco a year before, in 1997, losing by 5–0.

In 2000, Algeria disputed its second game, facing Morocco in Casablanca on July 30, 2000, in a qualifier for the 2000 AWC in South Africa. They didn't score in the match and it ended in a 0-3 defeat. The second leg in Algiers on August 12 finished with a 1-3 loss. The aggregate score was 1-6.

The team was not registered on the qualifiers for the 2002 AWC, which took place in Nigeria.

In international competitions

In the 2003 All-Africa Games, as no qualifying took place, Algeria was invited to the first women's football tournament of the All-Africa Games, in Nigeria. The team was paired in Group B with South Africa, DR Congo and Mali. The results weren't favorable as they lost all three games they played by crushing defeats. The first match was with DR Congo on October 4. The final score was a 2-5 defeat. Three days later, on October 7, they were beaten by South Africa with a scoreline of 1-3. Without any opportunity to advance to the Semi-Finals, Algeria played its last match with Mali and lost with a result of 0-3.

In the 2004 African Women's Championship, the Algerian women's team qualified for the first championship in their history when they participated in the 2004 AWC, again held in South Africa. Algeria's only rival in the qualifying round was Mali. Their road to the Championship started on the 11th of July, as visitor. They drew with Mali 2–2. Bowhani and Zerrouki scored for Algeria. At home, Algeria won 1–0 thanks to Zerrouki's goal in the 15 minute. Algeria was drawn in Group B with Nigeria, Cameroon and Mali, who qualified as a lucky loser because both DR Congo and Gabon (who were scheduled to play together in the qualifiers) withdrew.

The team had its debut with Nigeria on September 19, but they couldn't surpass them, losing by the score of 0-4. The second game was with Mali on September 22, and they recorded a 3-0 victory, their only win in the tournament. Sedhane, Imloul and Laouadi scored for Algeria in this game. With a chance to advance to the Semi-Finals, Algeria played their last game, facing Cameroon. Algeria's Nabila Imloul scored the first goal of the match, putting the team ahead 1–0. But Cameroon scored in the 29 minute to equalize the game. The final result was a 1-3 loss, resulting in elimination from the tournament.

In 2006, Algeria was part of the only Arab Women's Championship to the date, held in Egypt in April 2006. Algeria was in Group B along with Lebanon and Morocco. Algeria had their best result of all of their games in the first match with Lebanon on April 19, when they won 12–0. The second match against Morocco on April 21, ended in a goalless draw. Algeria advanced to the Semi-Finals with 4 points. In the Semi-Finals, the team won 3–0 against their neighbor country, Tunisia, thus advancing to the Final match, with Morocco. Algeria won 1–0 with a goal from Lilia Boumrar, and became the Champions of the only edition of Arab Women's Championship.

In the 2006 AWC/2007 World Cup qualifiers in March, Algeria entered into a World Cup qualifier for the first time as the 2006 AWC also served as the qualification tournament for the 2007 World Cup. The first scheduled rival for Algeria was Libya, but for unknown reasons Libya withdrew. Algeria advanced by walkover to the second qualifying round. The second qualifying round rival was Northern Africa neighbors Egypt, who advanced to the Second Round by the withdrawal of Eritrea. The first leg, in Annaba on July 23, resulted in a 1-0 victory in favor of Algeria, produced by Zerrouki's goal in the 57th minute. The second leg was away, in Alexandria on August the 5th. Algeria defeated Egypt with a 3–0 result. The team qualified for the 7th edition of the African Women's Championship, originally scheduled to be held in Gabon, but ultimately held in Nigeria due to organizational issues. The draw determined that Algeria would be in Group A along with hosts Nigeria, South Africa and Equatorial Guinea. The team didn't start well in the competition, as they lost the first game with South Africa 0-4. A worse result was registered in the second match, where Algeria faced the group favorites and 7-time champion of the tournament Nigeria. Algeria lost this match 0-6. The only point Algeria had in this edition was thanks to the last match, a 3–3 draw with Equatorial Guinea. Boumrar (one goal) and Bouhani (two goals) scored for Algeria in this match. Algeria failed to advance to the next stage and was eliminated from the 2007 Women's World Cup.

The 2007 All-Africa Games were held on home soil from July 10 to July 22. As hosts of the event, Algeria qualified automatically. They were drawn in Group B with Ghana and Senegal. They lost the first match with Ghana 1-2. They advanced to the Semi-Finals with a 3-1 victory over Senegal. The Semi-Final was with Nigeria, and ended in a 0-5 loss. Algeria then played the third place match against Ghana. The game ended in a 1-3 defeat, leaving Algeria with a fourth-place finish in the tournament.

The 2008 African Women's Championship was the second AWC that Algeria failed to qualify. The team played the First Round with Morocco and won with an aggregate score of 3–1, winning both legs by 1–0 and 2–1. Algeria advanced to the Second Round with Tunisia. The first leg in away soil, ended in a draw with no goals and the second (at home) resulted in a loss with the scoreline of 2–1. Algeria was eliminated and Tunisia qualified.

In the qualifiers for the 2008 Olympic Games, held in China, Algeria participated in the qualifiers, but didn't manage to get it. In the First Round, the Algerian team won 3–0 in the first leg with Mozambique and achieved one of the biggest wins in the second leg, by 9–1. The team advanced to the next round in where they faced Nigeria and won by 1–0, but had a loss in the second match by 6–0. Algeria were automatically eliminated after the aggregate score was 6–1.

In the 2009 UNAF Women's Tournament, Algeria participated in the only edition of the UNAF Women's Tournament in Tunisia in November 2009. The team finished second after drawing with Egypt 1–1 and lost 1–0 against Tunisia.

In the 2010 AWC/2011 World Cup qualifiers, Algeria entered for the second time in a World Cup qualifying round in the Preliminary Round of the 2010 AWC, against Egypt, but it later withdrew for unknown reasons. They advanced automatically to the First Round, in where they were drawn to play with Tunisia. The first leg was played in home soil on 22 May, in Koléa and the final result was 1–1. The goal for Algeria came in the extra time from Laouadi. In Tunis on 5 June, Algeria got its revenge for the last year loss, having a 1–0 victory. The aggregate result was 2–1 in favour of the Algerians, and thus, they qualified for the 2010 AWC in South Africa. In the Final tournament, Algeria's group was B, also the same of Equatorial Guinea, Cameroon and Ghana. The opening match with Ghana, resulted in 2–1 defeat, with the only goal being scored Ouadah at the first four mins. The team was winning 1–0 in the half-time. The second game, with the 2008 Champion Equatorial Guinea, finished in a 1–0 loss. With no chances of qualifying to the next round, Algeria's closing match was against Cameroon, and this last result was a 2–1 defeat. Naima Bouhani scored the only goal for them. The half-time had a 0–0 draw. Algeria ended eliminated from both the 2010 AWC and the 2011 World Cup.

In the 2011 All-Africa Games, Algeria entered the 2011 All-Africa Games football tournament qualifiers, but did not play any match as it was the only entry from the Zone 1 (North Africa). In the final tournament, the team was in the Group A, with Cameroon, Guinea and Mozambique. The first match had no goals from part of Algeria, but three of Cameroon, that did one defeat to them. Algeria beat Mozambique by 7–1 with goals of Meflah, Bouhani, Bekhedda, Marek and Yahi. The team did not play the game against Guinea, because it withdrew prior to playing the first match. Algeria advanced to the Semi-Finals, in where they lost with Ghana by the score of 3–0. The match for the bronze medal was the first victory to South Africa by 3–0. Zerrouki, Bouhani and Marek scored for Algeria and gave them the Bronze medal.

In the 2014 AWC/2015 World Cup qualifiers, after not entering the 2012 African Women's Football Championship qualification, Algeria registered in the 2014 qualifiers. This time, their rival was Morocco. In the first leg in Stade Omar Hamadi, Naima Bouhani shined for contributing to victory with 2 goals. Algeria defeated its neighbor country by 2–0. The second leg in Rabat resulted in a goalless draw. The aggregate result was 2–0, that made Algeria advance to the Second Round. Again in Stade Omar Hamadi, Algiers; Algeria received Tunisia in a chance to qualify to their fourth tournament. The goals of both teams were scored in the first time. The score was 2–1 in favour of the Algerians. Laifa and captain Sekouane scored. In Stade 15 Octobre, away soil; Algeria faced an aspirant Tunisia that tied the game in the half-time 2–2. Sekouane's goal at the 81 mins. put the match 3–2. Algeria qualified again with an aggregate score of 5–3. The draw on 19 July 2014 in Windhoek, Namibia (host nation) indicated that Algeria would be in the Group B with South Africa, Cameroon and Ghana. This was the second time in a row that Algeria was in the same group as Cameroon and Ghana. The first match marked the second win (and first) of the Algerian team in the tournament in 10 years (the last being the 3–0 to Mali in 2004), against Ghana with a 1–0 from Affak near to the end of the game. In the second game, they lost 2–0 to Cameroon. The last result, against South Africa, wasn't very good, as they lost by 5–1. Houria Affak again scored for the national team. All of its games were played on the Independence Stadium in Windhoek. Once more, Algeria didn't reached the World Cup.

Background and development

Women's football teams in the country have had to deal with killings around their matches.[5]

Home stadium

The Algeria women's national football team plays their home matches on the Stade du 5 Juillet.

Kits

Kit suppliers
Kit providers Period
Cirta Sport 1998–2001
Baliston 2002–2004
Le Coq Sportif 2004–2009
Puma (2010–2014)
Adidas		 (2015-ongoing)

1st Kit
2004 AWC
2006 AWC
2010 AWC
2014 AWC
2016 AWCON

2nd Kit
2004 AWC
2006 AWC
2010 AWC
2014 AWC
2016 AWCON

Honours
Bronze medal: (1): (2011)
Runners-up: (1): (2009)
Champions: (1): (2006)[6]

Achievements

Coaching staff
PositionNameRef.
Head coach Radia Fertoul [7]

Players

Current squad
No. Pos. Player Date of birth (age) Club
1 1GK Kahina Takenint (1991-05-21)21 May 1991 (aged 27) AS Sûreté Nationale
16 1GK Nadjet Fedoul (1981-10-28)28 October 1981 (aged 37) ASE Alger Centre
2 2DF Isma Ouadah (1983-01-19)19 January 1983 (aged 35) AS Sûreté Nationale
3 2DF Habiba Sadou (1986-11-01)1 November 1986 (aged 32) AS Sûreté Nationale
4 2DF Fatima Sekouane (1983-05-21)21 May 1983 (aged 35) CS Constantine
5 2DF Fatima Bara (1990-02-21)21 February 1990 (aged 28) ASE Alger Centre
12 2DF Morgane Belkhiter (1995-11-23)23 November 1995 (aged 22) Metz
13 2DF Chahrazed Bensekrane (1992-04-07)7 April 1992 (aged 26) AS Sûreté Nationale
14 2DF Myriam Benlazar (1995-06-09)9 June 1995 (aged 23) Nice
15 2DF Fethia Bekhedda (1990-07-09)9 July 1990 (aged 28) GF Khroub
21 2DF Fatima Beladgham (1994-02-10)10 February 1994 (aged 24) CS Constantine
6 3MF Lydia Belkacemi (1994-03-02)2 March 1994 (aged 24) Orléans
8 3MF Lina Khelif (1997-01-27)27 January 1997 (aged 21) Thonon Évian
18 3MF Imane Chebel (1995-03-25)25 March 1995 (aged 23) Unknown
19 3MF Zeyneb Kendouci (1994-03-16)16 March 1994 (aged 24) JF Khroub
20 3MF Assia Sidhoum (1996-12-25)25 December 1996 (aged 21) Unknown
7 4FW Amina Chahinez Hemour (1983-08-04)4 August 1983 (aged 35) ASE Alger Centre
9 4FW Djamila Marek (1980-05-08)8 May 1980 (aged 38) ASE Alger Centre
10 4FW Imene Merrouche (1994-04-25)25 April 1994 (aged 24) CS Constantine
11 4FW Inès Boutaleb (1997-11-08)8 November 1997 (aged 21) Thonon Évian
17 4FW Madina Ramdani (1991-05-13)13 May 1991 (aged 27) AS Sûreté Nationale

Recent call-ups
  • The following players have been called up to the Algeria squad in the past 12 months.
Pos. Player Date of birth (age) Caps Goals Club Latest call-up

Previous squads
UNAF Women's Tournament

Individual records
  • Active players in bold, statistics correct as of 2020.

Managers
  • (–present) Radia Fertoul[8]

Results and fixtures
  • The following is a list of match results in the last 12 months, as well as any future matches that have been scheduled.

  Win   Draw   Lose   Fixtures

2020
Date Location Opponent Score Competition
16 February 2020 El Kram  Tanzania 2–3 2020 UNAF Women's Tournament
18 February 2020 El Kram  Mauritania 0–5 2020 UNAF Women's Tournament
20 February 2020 El Kram  Tunisia 1–1 2020 UNAF Women's Tournament
22 February 2020 El Kram  Morocco 0–2 2020 UNAF Women's Tournament
5 April 2020 (2020-04-05) Africa Women Cup of Nations qualification Algeria  Cancelled  Burkina Faso
Cancellation
13 April 2020 (2020-04-13) Africa Women Cup of Nations qualification Burkina Faso  Cancelled  Algeria
Cancellation

All-time record
  • Correct as of November 3, 2014
Against Played Won Drawn Lost GF GA GD
 Cameroon4004210−8
 DR Congo100125−3
 Egypt522152+3
 Equatorial Guinea201134−1
 France1001014−14
 Ghana310225−3
 Ivory Coast200225−3
 Lebanon1100120+12
 Mali421165+1
 Morocco7421770
 Mozambique3300192+17
 Namibia100113−2
 Nigeria5104121−20
 Senegal5302107+3
 South Africa4004215−13
 Tunisia138232511+14
Total612582899116−17

See also
Algeria women's national teams

References
  1. http://levuvuzela.net/foot-feminin-amical-algerie-cote-divoire-les-elephantes-dominent-les-fennecs-3-1/ 12 November 2015
  3. "The FIFA/Coca-Cola Women's World Ranking". FIFA. 18 December 2020. Retrieved 18 December 2020.
  4. "Algeria: FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking". FIFA. 23 June 2017. Retrieved 23 June 2017.
  5. Richard Giulianotti; David McArdle (2006). Sport, Civil Liberties and Human Rights. Routledge. p. 71. ISBN 978-0-7146-5344-0. Retrieved 28 June 2012.
  6. "Championnat arabe dames: Le Maroc perd en finale face à l'Algérie". Le Matin (in French). 30 April 2006. Retrieved 22 June 2010.
  7. "FERTOUL RETAINS 24 PLAYERS FOR ABIDJAN" (in French). CAF. 3 November 2018. Retrieved 16 November 2018.
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