KARACHI: Pakistan women’s football team will come up against African sides Ivory Coast Mauritania as well as the Turks and Caicos Islands from the Caribbean during their inaugural participation in the FIFA Series this year, world’s football governing body said on Monday.
Pakistan did not participate in the first edition of the FIFA Series, sponsored biennial tournaments for mainly lower-ranked and lesser-financed nations, which was limited to men’s teams but the Pakistan Football Federation ensured that the women’s side became one of 12 teams that will play across three host countries during the inaugural women’s edition.
Ranked 154th in the world, Pakistan’s biggest test at the FIFA Series — which is aimed at benefitting national teams lacking opportunities to play sides from other continents with FIFA contributing to travel costs, accommodation and other logistics — is likely to come against hosts Ivory Coast.
The Ivorians were 72nd in the FIFA rankings that were updated in December. Mauritania, who played their debut international match in 2019, are yet to feature in the women’s rankings while the Turks and Caicos are 196th.
The national team was last in action during the AFC Women’s Asian Cup qualifiers where they won two of their three matches, against hosts Indonesia and Kyrgyzstan. Last month, the PFF advertised the post of head coach for the women’s team.
In all 48 teams are taking part this year, including five that qualified for the 2026 World Cup. FIFA had announced in November that the tournaments with friendly matches was expanding in 2026, with 11 host countries in all.
Australia, Cape Verde, Curacao, New Zealand and Uzbekistan — all of whom qualified for the 2026 men’s World Cup — will take part this year during the international match window in March and April.
Though some games in the first 24-nation series in 2024 were sparsely attended, others did spark big fan interest, with more than 85,000 turning up for Egypt’s tournament finale against Croatia in Cairo which they lost 4-2.
Published in Dawn, January 20th, 2026