[Courtesy: Zaka Ahmed Gondal, FPDC staffer]
USA Embassy in Islamabad supported the girls of Young Rising Stars Female Football Club, Rawalpindi Pakistan for the promotion of sports activities with Soccer training and coaching and this provided in years 2007 and 2008 for a period of few months. The efforts and the dedication of the club gave the results in short period of time.
The YRS club won the National Women Football Championship in 2008 and were runner up in the year 2009. Based on the performance, the players and management of YRS club was given 2 weeks tour of USA by the Youth Enrichment Program with the initiative of the State Department of USA where they had an opportunity to interact with football teams and coaches in the different educational institutions. This also broadened their vision where they also got apprised of American culture and values.
Since January 2009, YRS have not received any financial support from any sponsor and the club is struggling to maintain the pace of activities on its own and It requires lot of efforts for the team to stay at the top continuously so that the club can get some form of sponsored support to sustain its activities.
YRS continued hard training and Participated in 2010 National Women Football Champioship held at Islamabad from 25 July to 6th August 2010. We played 5 matches except one draw we won all matches and won the 6th National Women Football Championship and also got the Fair Play trophy and the Best Scorer
and Best Goalkeeper awards.
After a 04 years of clubs establishment we got 2 times 2008 and 2010 years National Champion awards and we also got 2nd position in year 2009.
To run a women Soccer club in Islamic country (Pakistan) is very difficult and It requires financial support at least for a period of few years to generate its own sponsorship at the local level or needs a proper owner to own this club for the survival of this well fame club.
Moreover, YRS is aspiring to broaden its scope of activities from the national horizon to the international one where we aspire to participate and prove in SAF games, Islamic countries competitions, Asian continent level and so on and on.
This kind of targeting need sustained and planned efforts for at least 3-5 years to achieve the objectives and I am sure that if we got appropriate and continuous financial support or ownership, we will definitely be able to achieve more and better results.
Young Rising Stars (Female) Football Club, Rawalpindi pics: