![\"An](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/618149_3676705_updates.jpg\")
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An undated picture of Pakistan men\u2019s U17 football team manager Arooj Sohail Butt. \u2014 Reporter<\/p>\n
KARACHI: In a landmark step toward gender equality in sports, the Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) has appointed Arooj Sohail Butt as manager of the Pakistan men\u2019s under-17 national team \u2014 the first time in the country’s football history that a woman has been assigned to manage a boys\u2019 side at the national and international level.<\/p>\n
Butt, who has been serving as PFF’s safeguarding officer, is certified in safeguarding by FIFA, the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) and the South Asian Football Federation (SAFF).<\/p>\n
She has been tasked with overseeing the under-17 squad as it prepares for the upcoming SAFF Championship and Asian qualifiers later this year.<\/p>\n
The PFF officials said the appointment reflects the federation\u2019s commitment to building an inclusive and professional environment that allows qualified women to take on leadership roles in football.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The move aligns with FIFA\u2019s anti-discrimination stance and its directive for the full participation of women at all levels of football governance, as outlined in its statutes and governance reforms adopted in 2016.<\/p>\n
While women have been involved in football at the grassroots level in Pakistan for years, their representation in high-performance and decision-making positions has remained low, although in 2019, the PFF Normalisation Committee appointed Manizeh Zainli at the position of general secretary.<\/p>\n
Officials say initiatives like this are aimed at breaking such barriers and encouraging more women to contribute in strategic and operational roles.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis decision not only promotes gender equality but also reinforces our commitment to safeguarding, professionalism and institutional excellence,\u201d said an official.<\/p>\n
The appointment also highlights the PFF’s adherence to FIFA and AFC safeguarding standards, ensuring the rights and well-being of minors in the sport are protected.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An undated picture of Pakistan men\u2019s U17 football team manager Arooj Sohail Butt. \u2014 Reporter KARACHI: In a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":57516,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":["post-57515","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-football","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57515","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57515"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57515\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57516"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}