"In 1986, when Norwegian delegate Ellen Wille stood on stage at Fifa's annual congress in Mexico and demanded the creation of a World Cup for women, it sparked support from one of the room's unlikeliest allies. Delegates from North Korea, so the story goes, were inspired by Wille's speech and returned to Pyongyang with a plan: to use women's football as a tool to reassert their collapsing power on the world stage."
"The plan was simple: starting in the late 1980s, the government would invest heavily in the women's game, inserting football programs into school curriculums, establishing women's teams in the military where players trained full-time, creating youth talent identification pathways, and constructing brand-new facilities across the country. As the nation became politically isolated, sport emerged as one of the only avenues through which North Korea could compete and even succeed internationally."
"That is what makes the nation's progress at the upcoming Women's Asian Cup, starting with their opening game against Uzbekistan on 3 March in Sydney's west, all the more intriguing. The three-time champions have not participated in the tournament since losing the final to Australia in 2010, after which they all but disappeared from global competition. But North Korea is now back, invigorated by a new generation of youth World Cup winners, and hoping to return to the summit of Asian football."
In 1986 a push for a women's World Cup inspired North Korean delegates to adopt women's football as a geopolitical instrument. From the late 1980s the state invested heavily: introducing football in schools, creating full-time military women's teams, setting up youth talent pathways, and building facilities. Political isolation made sport one of the few international outlets, and under Kim Jong-il the women's game functioned as a platform for political messaging. The national team debuted in 1989, became three-time Asian champions, then largely vanished after 2010 before returning energized by 2024 Under-20 World Cup winners.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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