Philippines women's national football team
The Philippines women's national football team is the women's national football team of the Philippines. It is managed by the Philippine Football Federation, the governing body of football in the country. The women's national football team of the Philippines was formalized in the 1980s. The Philippines has participated numerously in the AFC Women's Asian Cup, first participating in 1981 when the tournament was still known as the AFC Women's Championship. The Philippines hosted the tournament in 1999 in Iloilo and Bacolod. They had a hiatus from the continental tournament  after taking part in 2003 with a qualification process being introduced in the 2006 edition. They returned to the AFC Women's Asian Cup in 2018 after qualifying in 2017. In that iteration of the tournament, they progressed to the knockout stages for the first time in their Asian Cup participation history. The Philippines progressed further in the 2022 edition, advancing to the semi-finals and thus qualifying for the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup. It will be the national team's first participation at a FIFA Women's World Cup tournament in their 42-year history. In Southeast  Asian football, the Philippine women's team has limited success in the AFF Women's Championship and Southeast Asian Games with their only honor being the third-place finish at the 1985 Southeast Asian Games which saw only three teams participating in the women's football event. The head coach of the national team since October 2021 is Alen Stajčić and the team is currently 54th in the women's FIFA ranking as of March 2022, their highest-ever rank to date. History. Early years. The Philippines women's national football team was formally organized after the Philippine Ladies' Football  Association (PLFA) was established in 1980 by Cristina Ramos. The Philippines took part in the 1983 Asian Women's Championship in Thailand although the tournament at the time was not sanctioned by FIFA or the AFC. In order for the Philippines to be eligible to participate in FIFA tournaments, the PLFA and in extension the women's national team would have to be an affiliate of the Philippine Football Federation (PFF), the Philippines' national sports association for football. The PLFA later became part of the PFF. The Philippines was among the teams which competed in the 1985 Southeast Asian Games  in Thailand, the first-ever edition of the games to host women's football. The team clinched its first podium finish in a tournament by finishing third place. However the football event of the tournament was only contested by two other teams, Thailand and Singapore with the Philippines not winning a single match. 2000s. Marlon Maro coached the women's national football team as early as 2001 when he guided the national team through the 2001 Southeast Asian Games. He was head coach of the national team until 2007, coaching the team for the last time at the 2007 Southeast  Asian Games 2010s. 2011 AFF Championship and 2012 LA Viking Cup. The Philippine national team participated at the 2011 AFF Women's Championship in Laos from October 16–25, after being inactive for the last 21 months. The national team had a training camp in the United States in 2012. The team management scouted for players with Filipino heritage in the United States for the national team. Part of the training camp was participation at the 2012 LA Viking Cup, which saw the national team play against American club sides California Cosmos, Metro Stars, and Leon. The national team won the  tournament beating California Cosmos in the final 4–3 on extra time, the scoreline between the two teams was 1–1 before extra time. 2014 AFC Women's Asian Cup qualifiers. The national team attempted to qualify for the 2014 AFC Women's Asian Cup. The Philippines was grouped with Bangladesh, Iran and Thailand at the qualifiers single group stage with the winner advancing to the Asian Cup finals. The team fell short of qualifying after losing to Thailand by a single goal despite winning convincingly over its other group opponents, Iran and Bangladesh. 2013–2015 Southeast Asian tournaments. The 2013 AFF Women 's Championship saw the participation of the Philippine squad. The Philippines was grouped with Laos, Indonesia, hosts Myanmar and invitees Japan U23. The Philippines failed to proceed to the knock-out stage, after placing third in the group, with only the top two teams proceeding to the next phase of the tournament. The Philippines lost to Japan U23 and Myanmar and won against the other two teams. The women's national football team participated at the 2013 Southeast Asian Games. The Philippine Olympic Committee decided only to send the women's national football team. The committee decided against sending their  men counterpart to the games. The Philippines failed to get past the Group Stage losing against all three nations grouped with the country. In February 2015, it was reported that PFF General Secretary Ed Gastanes said that the head coach position for the women's national team is vacant. The previous holder of the post, Ernie Nierras was not an A license coach meaning he was not able to continue his coaching stint. Nierras led the team in his last competitive match as coach in 2013. The PFF announced in April 2015 that Bautista was appointed as head coach and  was tasked to first lead the team at the 2015 AFF Women's Championship. Bautista is also the first female coach of the national team. The national team failed to get past the group stage of the 2015 AFF Women's Championship only winning a game against Malaysia and losing the other two matches. 2018 AFC Women's Asian Cup. The Philippines made their first appearance at the AFC Women's Asian Cup in 2018 since the qualification phase for the continental tournament was introduced. The national team secured qualification by finishing second in their group behind Jordan, the 2018  final tournament hosts in the qualifiers. As part of their preparations for the continental cup, the Philippine Football Federation launched the "Project Jordan" task force to help the team qualify for the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup. The PFF secured major sponsorship and hired United States-based English coach, Richard Boon; an identification camp was held in the United States participated by national team players and prospects. A three month training camp in the United States was later set up in late December 2017. In March 2018, Boon was replaced by French coach Rabah Benlarbi as the national team  held a camp at the PFF National Training Centre in Philippines. Before participating in the Jordan to compete in the Asian Cup the national team will hold their last camp in Japan from March 20 to 27, 2018. 2019 onwards. The Philippines competed at the 2019 Southeast Asian Games, which was hosted at home, but were denied a bronze medal by Myanmar. However the team did not play any games since then due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite this, they attained their highest ever ranking at 65th place by the end of 2020. Guided by head coach Marlon Maro, they  qualified for the 2022 AFC Women's Asian Cup, after featuring in the qualifiers held in September 2021 despite almost a year of inactivity. Alen Stajčić is then appointed as head coach in October 2021. On January 30, 2022, the Malditas qualified for the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup after beating Chinese Taipei in the quarter-finals of the 2022 AFC Women's Asian Cup in Pune, India. This is the first time that the country qualified for the FIFA Women's World Cup, and the first time the country qualified for a World Cup of any gender. Team  image. Nicknames. The Philippines women's national football team has been known or nicknamed as the ""Malditas" (Feisty ladies)". The nickname was adopted by the team during the 2005 Southeast Asian Games under head coach Ernest Nierras. Nierras meant the moniker (in Spanish, "accursed") to reflect the players' gutsy nature and determination, a team which never gives up and whom opponents fear to face. As the term "maldita" could be interpreted as "bratty", head coach Marlon Maro in October 2021 proposed discontinuing the nickname. Maro wanted to replace the nickname, believing the "Malditas" monicker to be pejorative. After Maro's  departure in late 2021, the status of the proposal became unclear with members of the national team at that time preferring to keep the nickname. In March 2022, the PFF announced that they would be officially adopting the nickname "Filipinas" for the team. The moniker had been used before, as the demonym for female people of the Philippines. Jefferson Cheng, the team manager reasoned that the derivative word of "Malditas" has a somewhat pejorative meaning in Tagalog and despite its uniqueness, it could be "problematic" having to repeatedly explain its meaning regarding the national team. He also added that the  word is a swear word in Spanish and Portuguese which translates to "damned". Cheng also clarified that the "Filipinas" moniker is a standalone and is not meant to be preceded by a modifier (e.g. Philippine Filipinas). Home stadium. Since October 2015, the home stadium of the national team is the Biñan Football Stadium in Biñan, Laguna. FIFA World Ranking. , "after the match against ". 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. Players. Current squad. The following 26 players were called up for  the training camp in Australia. "Caps and goals updated as of April 30, 2022, after the match against Tonga." Recent call-ups. The following players have been called up for the Philippines within the past 12 months. Personnel. Head coaches. Notes Competitive record. FIFA Women's World Cup. The Philippines has never qualified for the FIFA Women's World Cup until the 2023 edition. It didn't attempt to qualify for the inaugural FIFA Women's World Cup in 1991 with its non-participation at the 1991 AFC Women's Championship which also served as the Asian qualifiers of the  World Cup. The national team first attempted to qualify for the succeeding editions of the tournament from 1995 except for the 2011 edition. Olympic Games. The Philippines entered a qualification tournament for the Olympics. At the first two editions of the Olympics where women's football was played, the standings at the preceding FIFA Women's World Cup were used. With the country not being able to qualify for the final tournament of the 1995 and 1999 FIFA Women's World Cups the country was not able to qualify for the 1996 and 2000 Olympics. AFF Women's Championship. The  Philippines participated in all editions of the tournament, except in 2006, when the women's national team did not enter. In 2019, the team advanced to the semifinals for the first time in history, finishing in 4th place. Before 2019, the team has never managed to get past the Group Stage of the AFF Championship. SEA Games. At the 1985 Southeast Asian Games, where women's football was first contested in the regional tournament, the Philippines finished third place. However, there were only three participants in the tournament with the Philippines losing its only two games against Singapore and Thailand . The national team has never managed to get past the Group Stage at the succeeding editions of the tournament which contested women's football and did not participate in the 2009 edition.