FIFA

Growing the game in Mauritania 🙌

Football’s accelerating growth in Mauritania, a northwest African nation of 5.5 million people, is a testament not only to the game’s powerful potential, but the fruitful partnership between FIFA and the Football Federation of the Islamic Republic of Mauritania (FFRIM).

Mauritania’s men’s national team, which was below 200th in the FIFA/Coca-Cola Men’s World Ranking as recently as 2013, has now climbed to 113th. They reached the CAF Africa Cup of Nations in 2019, 2022 and then again in 2024, when they advanced to the round of 16 for the first time in their history.

The women’s team returned to competition in last year’s Women's Cup WAFU-A 2025 and then this spring’s groundbreaking FIFA Series, where they earned victories over Pakistan and Turks and Caicos Islands. They also made their maiden appearance in a FIFA Tournament at the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup 2025 in Seychelles.

With FIFA’s help Mauritania is doubling the capacity of the Stade Cheikha Ould Boïdiya in the capital, Nouakchott. It will go from holding 8,000 spectators to 16,000.

FIFA Forward funding has also been used to install a synthetic pitch at the Stade Municipal de Nouadhibou, purchase vehicles for the women’s national team and launch a Video Assistant Referee (VAR) system for the top domestic division.

But it doesn’t stop there. With FIFA’s support the FFRIM has upgraded its HQ and built a health centre at its football academy in Nouakchott.

That academy investment helped pave the way for the opening of the FIFA Talent Academy Mauritania. It was the first Talent Academy opened in Africa under FIFAs ambitious Talent Development Scheme.

“We’ve become a respected organisation and a model for development, and, I believe, a good example of what the FIFA Forward Programme can help build over the long term,” FFRIM President and FIFA Council Member Ahmed Yahya said.

Mauritania was also the first African country to launch FIFA Football for Schools. And it has implemented the FIFA Foundation’s Digital Education Programme, providing technological tools as well as learning, training, and mentoring resources to primary schools in vulnerable environments.

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