By Paul Nicholson
March 11 – Women should not be left out of football’s rebuilding programme and that although positive steps have been taken by men for the women’s game, more can be done. These were two clear messages coming out of the just concluded Female Leadership webinars organised by sports integrity body SIGA.
Speaking at a sidebar during the three days of sessions that saw more than 70 speakers and 2,000 delegates, FIFA’s Chief Women’s Football Officer Sarai Bareman said: “We have taken steps which should be regarded as first steps (towards gender equality) and we have female reps at FIFA Council (FIFA’s decision making body). These are positive steps and we continue to make progress, not just in the boardroom but we are backing it up on the pitch…we have worked top down in terms of reform and made concrete proposals…simultaneously there needs to be a pipeline from the bottom up and how we support women coming into the game.”
Certainly FIFA is making a lot of the rights moves but is the game generally going in and inclusive direction fast enough, and particularly as a rebuild and return to play ramps up?
Sarah Gregorius, a member of FIFPro’s policy team, said “women frequently get left out of the conversation. Women’s decision need to be made by those that are going to be impacted. Athletes are left out of the decision making.”
Talking about the recovery plan for women’s game she said there needs to be wariness “about how we do the rebuilding. We need a collaborative vision with all stakeholders round the table working for a sustainable future. What happens at the top must filter down…we must be frank and honest about it.”
“There is not one definitive way of doing things. We need to be creative and innovative. The women’s game doesn’t have to be the little sister. We have to look horizontally across all stakeholders.”
The return to play following lockdown was exclusively for the men’s major leagues. The question is whether this has this set back the women’s game and should more have been done to stimulate the return of the women’s leagues?
Gregorious says that it was inevitable that men would be put first. “Bigger leagues that are more commercially driven (rather than development driven as many women’s leagues currently are) have lost a lot of money and that is on-going. When the bottom line drops out the first thing to do is to support those funding resources…the men’s game was prioritised.” However Bareman pointed out that in FIFA’s Covid relief fund €500 million designated had been for women’s football.
“We need to get away from any idea that women’s football is a gamble,” said Gregorius. “If you look at the numbers where the women’s game has returned they have been extraordinary.
If you cut youth and women as the easy way out you are just leaving money on the table.” She says the game should be seen as an opportunity and the recovery phase is increasingly revealing those opportunities. However, there is still a need to overcome “misogynistic barriers”.
The catalyst for the women’s game has generally been major events and the raid growth in their profile.
“I really do believe we are in a good place (with the women’s game). We have some really fantastic competitions coming up with the Olympics, the postponed Euros, the reformed women’s Champions League in europe. We are seeing a lot of leagues move towards professionalism in Argentina, Japan, Italy, Spain for example. We are in a really good space but we can’t slack off. We must be progressive and holistic.”
It is a theme echoed Bareman. “The momentum is far too great to be set back by covid and the governance dramas we have seen. There is far too much growth potential for it to be set back, we are already too far progressed.”
Katie Simmonds, SIGA’s Global COO made the point that while covid presented a moment to take stock there are signs that covid has potentially weakened good governance. She said that as the women’s game rebuilds “commercialisation and governance go together…diversity and inclusion at the heart of values will drive not only governance but the directly feed into the commercial piece.”
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