Ivory Coast women's national football team

Ivory Coast

Association	Fédération Ivoirienne de Football
Confederation	CAF (Africa)
Sub-confederation	WAFU (West Africa)
Head coach	Clémentine Touré
Captain	Dominique Thiamalé
FIFA code	CIV
First colours Second colours
FIFA ranking
Current	62 (26 August 2016)[1]
Highest	60 (March 2016)
Lowest	136 (2011)
First international
Ivory Coast 0–3 Netherlands  (1 June 1988, Foshan, China)
Biggest win
Ivory Coast 7–0 Mozambique  (26 May 2012, Abidjan, Ivory Coast)
Biggest defeat
Ivory Coast 0–10 Germany  (7 June 2015, Ottawa, Canada)
World Cup
Appearances	1 (first in 2015)
Best result	Group Stage, (2015)
Africa Women Cup of Nations
Appearances	2 (first in 2012)
Best result	3rd place, (2014)

The Ivory Coast women's national football team represents Ivory Coast in international women's football and it is controlled by the Fédération Ivoirienne de Football. They played their first international match in 1988. They are currently ranked as the 60th best team in the world and the 6th best team in CAF.

History

In 1985, almost no country in the world had a women's national football team,^[2] including Côte d'Ivoire who did not play their first FIFA recognised match until 1988^[3] when they participated in the Women's FIFA Invitational Tournament 1988. The country was in Group A. On 1 June, they lost to the Netherlands 0–3 in a game in Foshan. On 3 June, they lost to Canada 0–6 in a game in Foshan. In a game on 5 June, they lost to China 1–8 in a game in Guangzhou.^[4] In 1992, they competed at the 1st Lyon'ne Cup — Women, held in Lyon, France from 17–20 April. Côte d'Ivoire was in the nation's group. They lost to the United States U20 team 0–4, lost to the CIS team 0–3 and lost to France 1–6.^[5] In 2002, the team competed in 2 matches.^[6] In 2003, they played in 0 matches.^[6] In 2004, they played in 0 matches.^[6] In 2005, they played in 3 matches.^[6] In 2006, they played in 2 matches.^[6] In 2006, the team had 3 training sessions a week.^[6] In 2005, they played in the women's Tournoi de Solidarité in Dakar, Senegal. On 18 May, they lost to Mali 1–6. On 20 May, they tied Senegal 3–3. They did not make the finals and overall finished last in the tournament.^[7] On 17 May 2006 in Dakar, Togo tied Côte d'Ivoire 3–3.^[8] In 2007, the country competed at the Tournoi de Cinq Nations held in Ouagadougou. On 2 September, they tied Mali 1–1 with Rita Akaffou scoring for the team in the 65th minute. On 5 September, they beat Togo 5–0 before Togo was disqualified from the competition for bringing a club team. On 6 September, they lost to Mali 1–2.^[9] In 2010, the country had a team at the African Women's Championships during the preliminary rounds. In the round, they beat Guinea 5–1. They lost to Malawi 4–2 in the return leg.^[10] In the 2010, Women's Championship in Africa, they lost in the preliminary round in March, they beat Gabon at home and away 2–1 and 3–1. In the first round against Nigeria, they lost both matches by scores of 1–2 and 1–3.^[11] The country did not have a team competing at the 2011 All Africa Games.^[12]

The national team has trained in Abidjan.^[13] As of 2006, the country did not have an under-17 or under-20 side.^[6] In June 2012, the team was ranked 67th in the world by FIFA and the 6th best team in CAF.^[14] This was an improvement of four places from March 2012 when they were ranked 71st in the world. The team's worst ever ranking was in 2011 when they were ranked 136th in the world. Other rankings include 73 in 2006, 75 in 2007, 74 in 2008, 92 in 2009, and 77 in 2010.^[15]

However, in 2014 African Women's Championship, Ivory Coast surprised everyone by passing through into the semi-final, and later, they shocked Africa by beating giant South Africa, marked for the first time they would play in FIFA Women's World Cup, in Canada 2015. In the later tournament, the World Cup, they were eliminated with three total losses to Germany (0–10), Thailand (2–3) and Norway (1–3). Despite having lost all, Ange N'Guessan's goal over Norway was voted as one of ten best goal in the whole tournament.

Background and development

Early development of the women's game at the time colonial powers brought football to the continent was limited, as colonial powers in the region tended to take concepts of patriarchy and women's participation in sport with them to local cultures that had similar concepts already embedded in them.^[16] The lack of later development of the national team on a wider international level symptomatic of all African teams is 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.^[17] When quality female football players are developed, they tend to leave for greater opportunities abroad.^[18] Continent-wide, funding is also an issue, with most development money coming from FIFA, not the national football association.^[18] 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.^[16]

Football is the fourth most popular girls' sport, trailing behind handball, basketball and athletics.^[6] A women's football program was set up in the country in 1975^[13] and girls' football is played in schools.^[6] Player registration starts at nine years of age.^[13] In 2006, there were 610 registered female players, 560 of whom were senior players and 50 were under 18 years of age.^[6] This was an increase from 2002 when there were 130 registered female players, 2003 when there were 220, 2004 when there were 253, and 2005 when there were 428 registered players.^[6] In 2006, there were 123 football clubs in the country, of which 11 were women's-only sides.^[6] As of 2009, there are 36 senior teams and 4 youth teams for women.^[13] A school based competition exists.^[13]

The national federation was created in 1960 and became FIFA affiliated in 1964.^[6][19][20] Their kit includes orange shirts, white shorts and green socks.^[19] The national committee does not have a full-time employee in charge of women's football.^[6] Representation of women's football is not guaranteed in the federation's constitution.^[6] The FIFA trigramme is CIV.^[21] A FIFA-run women's MA football course was run in the country in 2007.^[13]

Tournament record

World Cup

Year	Result	Position	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA
1991	Did Not Enter
1995	Did Not Enter
1999	Did Not Enter
2003	Did Not Qualify
2007	Did Not Qualify
2011	Did Not Qualify
2015	Group Stage	23rd	3	0	0	3	3	16
Total	1/7	-	3	0	0	3	3	16

Africa Women's Championship

CAF Women's Championship
Year	Result	Matches	Wins	Draws	Losses	GF	GA
1991	Did not enter
1995
1998
2000
2002	Did not qualify
2004	Did not enter
2006	Did not qualify
2008
2010
2012	Group stage	3	1	0	2	7	7
2014	Third place	5	2	1	2	8	8
2016	Did not qualify
Total	2/12	8	3	1	4	15	15

Current squad

Squad for the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup.^[22]

Head coach: Clémentine Touré

0#0	Pos.	Player	Date of birth (age)	Caps	Goals	Club
1	GK	Lydie Saki	22 December 1984	27	0	Juventus de Yopougon
2	DF	Fatou Coulibaly	13 February 1987	31	1	Juventus de Yopougon
3	DF	Djelika Coulibaly	22 February 1984	29	0	Juventus de Yopougon
4	DF	Nina Kpaho	30 December 1996	12	0	Juventus de Yopougon
5	DF	Mariam Diakité	11 April 1995	12	9	ES Abobo
6	MF	Rita Akaffou	5 December 1986	33	4	Gintra Universitetas
7	FW	Nadege Essoh	5 May 1990	29	4	Juventus de Yopougon
8	FW	Ines Nrehy	1 October 1993	17	13	WFC Rossiyanka
9	FW	Sandrine Niamien	30 August 1994	2	1	ES Abobo
10	FW	Ange N'Guessan	18 November 1990	19	3	FC Barcelona
11	FW	Rebecca Elloh	25 December 1994	15	2	Gintra Universitetas
12	MF	Ida Guehai	15 July 1994	22	1	Kristianstads DFF
13	DF	Fernande Tchetche	20 June 1988	19	0	Omness de Dabou
14	FW	Josée Nahi	29 May 1989	18	12	WFC Rossiyanka
15	MF	Christine Lohoues	18 October 1992	22	1	Onze Sœurs de Gagnoa
16	GK	Dominique Thiamale (c)	20 May 1982	27	0	Omness de Dabou
17	FW	Nadège Cissé	4 April 1997	6	0	ES Abobo
18	MF	Binta Diakité	7 May 1988	20	2	ASF Medenine
19	MF	Jessica Aby	16 June 1998	1	0	Onze Sœurs de Gagnoa
20	MF	Aminata Haidara	13 May 1997	4	0	Onze Sœurs de Gagnoa
21	DF	Sophie Aguie	31 December 1996	4	0	Omness de Dabou
22	DF	Raymonde Kacou	7 January 1987	6	0	Juventus de Yopougon
23	GK	Cynthia Djohore	16 December 1987	27	0	Onze Sœurs de Gagnoa

References

2. Chrös McDougall (1 January 2012). Soccer. ABDO. p. 45. ISBN 978-1-61783-146-1. Retrieved 13 April 2012.
3. "Results: Côte d'Ivoire". FIFA. 29 September 2009. Retrieved 9 June 2012.
4. "Women's FIFA Invitational Tournament 1988". Rsssf.com. 2011-01-13. Retrieved 2012-04-13.
5. "Lyon'ne Cup (Women) 1992–1993". Rsssf.com. 2003-06-19. Retrieved 2012-04-13.
6. FIFA (2006). "Women's Football Today" (PDF): 57. Retrieved 8 June 2012.
7. "Tournoi de Solidarité (Women) 2005 (Dakar, Senegal)". Rsssf.com. 2010-01-15. Retrieved 2012-04-13.
8. "Results: Togo". FIFA. 29 September 2009. Retrieved 9 June 2012.
9. "Tournoi de Cinq Nations (Women) 2007". Rsssf.com. 2008-03-06. Retrieved 2012-04-13.
10. "Fixtures — African Women Championship 2010 – CAF". Cafonline.com. Retrieved 2012-04-13.
11. "Africa — Women's Championship 2010". Rsssf.com. Retrieved 2012-04-13.
12. "Groups & standings — All Africa Games women 2011 – CAF". Cafonline.com. Retrieved 2012-04-13.
13. "Goal! Football: Côte d'Ivoire" (PDF). FIFA. 3 November 2009. p. 4. Retrieved 8 June 2012.
14. "The FIFA Women's World Ranking". FIFA.com. 2009-09-25. Retrieved 9 June 2012.
15. >"World Rankings". FIFA. 2009-09-25. Retrieved 9 June 2012.
16. Peter Alegi (2 March 2010). African Soccerscapes: How a Continent Changed the World's Game. Ohio University Press. ISBN 978-0-89680-278-0. Retrieved 22 April 2012.
17. Jean Williams (15 December 2007). A Beautiful Game: International Perspectives on Women's Football. Berg. p. 186. ISBN 978-1-84520-674-1. Retrieved 13 April 2012.
18. Gabriel Kuhn (24 February 2011). Soccer Vs. the State: Tackling Football and Radical Politics. PM Press. p. 34. ISBN 978-1-60486-053-5. Retrieved 13 April 2012.
19. Pickering, David (1994). The Cassell soccer companion : history, facts, anecdotes. London: Cassell. p. 167. ISBN 0304342319. OCLC 59851970.
20. "Goal! Football: Côte d'Ivoire" (PDF). FIFA. 3 November 2009. p. 1. Retrieved 8 June 2012.
21. Tom Dunmore (16 September 2011). Historical Dictionary of Soccer. Scarecrow Press. ISBN 978-0-8108-7188-5. Retrieved 13 April 2012.
22. 2015 World cup roster

External links

• Official website
• FIFA profile