The Madagascar women's national football team is the FIFA recognised senior women's A team for Madagascar. The team played their first FIFA matches in 2015. The development of a national team in the country is problematic because of issues found on the continent and on the island, specifically the lack of popularity of women's football as a participation sport in Madagascar.
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 make concepts of patriarchy and women's participation in sport with them to local cultures that had similar concepts already embedded in them. 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. When quality female football players are developed, they tend to leave for greater opportunities abroad. Continent wide, funding is also an issue, with most development money coming from FIFA, not the national football association. 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. Malagasy Football Federation was founded in 1961 and became a FIFA affiliate in 1964. Women's football is required on the board by a wider mandate though the organisation does not employee any full-time employees to look after women's football. Football ranks as the eighth most popular women's sport in the country, trailing behind basketball, which is the most popular. The popularity of rugby union as a woman's participation sport also challenges football. In the nation's capital, there are ten women's rugby union club teams. This siphons off potential players from football. A women's football programme was organised in the country in 2000. In 2006, there were 1,065 registered female football players, 340 adults players and 725 youth players. This was an increase from 2000 when there were 800 registered female players, and the 210 total registered players in 2002. In 2006, there were 91 women only football clubs in the country. Women's football was gaining popularity during the late 2000s. By 2009, the total number of women's clubs was 22 senior teams and 38 youth teams. Futsal is played by women in the country, with 80 unregistered female futsal players playing in 2006. In 2015 and 2016 the team played several matches, of which four were FIFA recognized. Two of those were 4–0 wins against Comoros. The other games were in the Indian Ocean Games.
History
In 1985, almost no country in the world had a women's national football team, including Madagascar, who did not play in a single FIFA sanctioned match between 1950 and June 2012. In 2005, Zambia was supposed to host a regional COSAFA Women's Championship, with ten teams agreeing to send teams including South Africa, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Malawi, Seychelles, Mauritius, Madagascar, Zambia, Botswana, Namibia, Lesotho and Swaziland. Madagascar did not record a result from this competition. In 2006, there was a FIFA recognised senior A team that had two training sessions a week though they had not played a single game between 2000 and 2006. A FIFA recognised senior A team existed in 2009. In 2010, the country did not have a team competing in the African Women's Championships during the preliminary rounds. The country did not have a team competing at the 2011 All Africa Games. In June 2012, the team was not ranked in the world by FIFA.
Honours
Football at the Indian Ocean Island Games: Runner-up 2015
U20 team
Madagascar women's national under-20 team were supposed to have participated in the African Women U-20 Championship 2006, opening against Senegal but the team withdrew from the tournament. Still, the team played in three games in 2005. In 2006, the team had two training sessions a week. In 2009, the team still had FIFA recognition. They competed in the African Women U-20 World Cup 2010 Qualifying. In the first leg, they lost to Reunion 1–3. In the second leg, they lost 1–4.
