One Year of Watching the Women's Game From This Side

Arabic-language coverage of women's football barely exists.

This is not a minor gap. It is a structural absence. The English-language press covers the WSL, the NWSL, the Champions League, with imperfect commitment but visible commitment. The French press covers the D1 Arkema. The Spanish press covers Liga F. The Arabic-language press, with rare exceptions, does not cover women's football at all.

This has consequences. Players from Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Egypt are visible in European leagues. They are invisible in the press that the region's audience reads. The result is a generation of women playing professional football who have no public profile in their countries of origin. They are footballers. They are simply not allowed to be visible footballers in their own languages.

The reasons are mixed. Conservative editorial preferences. Audience assumptions that the press does not test. A circular logic in which lack of coverage produces lack of audience produces lack of coverage. Sponsors who do not push for inclusion. Federations that do not promote their own players.

The 2022 Women's AFCON existed. The 2024 tournament will exist. The Moroccan federation has invested in the women's game with more commitment than any other Arab country. The football itself is improving rapidly. The coverage is not.

This is changing slowly. It needs to change faster. A football culture that does not see half its players is a football culture that does not yet understand itself.