Designing Development For Women's Football

Players compete in the MilkLife Soccer Challenge 2024 competition (doc. MilkfLife).

JAKARTA The Djarum Foundation and MilkLife Sports Service designed coaching levels for young women athletes after successfully turning the wheel of the competition titled MilkLife Soccer Challenge in the last two years.

This program will later conduct talent scouting to capture superior seeds to be further fostered through the MilkLife Soccer Extra Training program under the guide of Timo Scheunemann.

Timo is a coach who has held a UEFA A coaching license since 2007. He has also previously served as coach of the Indonesian women's national team.

After undergoing coaching, participants will be included in a team representing the cities holding the MilkLife Soccer Challenge spread across Kudus, Jakarta, Tangerang, Bandung, Semarang, Yogyakarta, Solo, and Surabaya.

Timo said these talents will later compete in the MilkLife Soccer Challenge All-Stars for the 12-year-old age group (KU) which is planned to be held in Kudus, Central Java, in early 2025.

"From this championship, we can see the extent of the talent development and quality of the participants," said the tactician who has German blood in the statement received.

Djarum and MilkLife have just finished holding the MilkLife Soccer Challenge Series 3 2024 on Saturday, September 28, last weekend, at the Supersoccer Arena, Rendeng Kudus, Central Java.

In the age group (KU) 12, SDUT Bumi Kartini Jepara managed to defend their title after defeating their enemy SDIT Al Islam Kudus 4-1 again in the final match.

It was a team they had beaten in the previous two finals. This success earned SDUT Bumi Kartini three consecutive titles throughout the MilkLife Soccer 2024 aka hat trick.

Meanwhile, in the 10 year age group, SDN Jambean 02 Pati, who grabbed the highest podium after defeating their toughest opponent, SD Muhammadiyah Birrul Walidain A from Kudus.

In each city of Soccer Challenge, MilkLife has also netted 21 best players. These players will be given special training before being screened back to 14 people for next year's competition.

Djarum Foundation Sports Service Director's Program Yoppy Rosimin said that since making this competition they want Kudus and other organizing cities to be a benchmark for the growth of the women's soccer ecosystem at an early age.

"We are optimistic that this hope can be realized in the future, seeing from the high enthusiasm of the participants and the support of parents and schools for this sport," he said.

Participation from the MilkLife Soccer Challenge Kudus Series 3 2024 is quite high. The number of participants was recorded at 1,886 students from 116 Madrasah Ibtidaiyah (MI) and Elementary Schools (SD) from Kudus City and surrounding cities such as Rembang, Pati, Jepara, and Demak.

This number increased rapidly compared to the implementation of the MilkLife Soccer Challenge Kudus Series 2 2024 which was attended by 1,050 participants from 62 MI and SD at that time. At that time there were 37 KU 10 and 57 KU 12 teams participating.

The increasing enthusiasm made the organizers implement a tournament system of 64 teams.

In this system, each age group will contain 64 of the best teams from 32 teams that have participated in the previous MilkLife Soccer Challenge series, and 32 teams that have passed the qualifying round.