Reflections on the FIFPRO Women’s Football Summit

I just spent a few days at the FIFPRO Women’s Football Summit in Amsterdam. It still feels weird for me to be back in soccer spaces. But being at the conference reminded me of all the things I love about football.

At one point during the conference, I looked over and saw a familiar face. Around fifteen years ago, I had come to visit her roommate in college who was one of my good friends, and I slept on her beanbag and spent the weekend hanging out with them. Even though I only met her that one time, we spoke for ages like the oldest of friends. The common language of playing the game in an incredibly toxic time, walking away from something we loved for many years to grow, heal and reflect. And our respective journeys of coming back now to do something impactful and positive with those experiences to make the game better for those coming behind us.

Continuing on the theme of these hilariously small world soccer spaces, throughout the weekend, I realized I had watched one of the European Player reps play a match at the U20 World Cup in 2007, and shared many common friends with from a FIFPRO leader that is from Oceana.

And like a grand finale reminder as to just how small the soccer world is, as I was walking out the door to leave the conference and just had a quick moment to tell the Icelandic player rep what a great presentation she gave, once we started chatting we realized we shared a mutual close friend with my bestie from my Denmark days who played with her in Sweden.

The presentations were amazing and I learned so much. When in the global space of soccer, I realize that there is so much that we take for granted. Like hearing that 65% of women in Africa can’t play soccer when they have their period because they don’t have any tools to stop bleeding. Or how in Futsal the women needed to come together, organize and demand because FIFA was ignoring them and wouldn’t give them a World Cup to match the men who had had 8 editions (they are badasses and they did it).

How with maternity leave women had to fight to be able to get the most basic rights to match those out in the “real world.” Having the chance to listen to Almuth Schult, Germany’s keeper, and have a chat with her afterwards about her experience playing soccer while being a mom to 3 year old twins. How those twins now want to play soccer because they see their Mom doing it. How she brought up an excellent point in her fireside chat on stage, that that is our next generation of soccer players and we need to treat the vessels to bring that next generation into the world like gold and not a discarded afterthought. It was also fascinating listening to conversations about data and the collection of it. The value of that data and how as players we have such little understanding about the immense value that our contribution brings, and the importance of fighting collectively for its monetary worth.

I had the opportunity to also be in a room with the other countries in CONCACAF and hear about the massive disparity between countries and discuss ways that we can lessen it. Becoming aware sitting in these Euro-centric spaces where the default language and viewpoint is English and Euro centric, and how it motivated me immensely to learn other languages properly to show the respect that we are a world that has many speakers of other languages. To be able to comfortably converse with people from different regions.

The main take away I got from all of it, is that as female players we need to come together and lift each other up around the world. Get our heads out of the sand of our own space. And for those of us who are privileged, come and give our resources to help fight for others whose fights are much harder and for the most basic of things. We are so strong when we come together, and I’m so glad that we seem to be past an era where we accepted the message that as women’s players we should be grateful for crumbs. That we are ok being an afterthought. That we should fear having what we love the most being taken away. That we finally see our value and are collectively fighting for it.

Which leads me back to my long conversation during the conference, with my new/old friend who shared her bean bag for me to crash on in her dorm room many moons ago. There are so many of us with so much left to heal from our experiences in women’s soccer. I still fight a little bit a feeling of wanting to run from large gatherings of soccer people. It’s like my hand got burned on a stove for many years, but it’s been turned off and it’s safe now. Yet I’m still having a hell of a job convincing my brain of it.

So many women’s players were in soccer spaces as athletes, that was our refuge away from trauma. Or at least it served as a healthy space to put our young adult angst and troubles into. And for so many of us, we were so burned so heavily in that space. Like any abuse, the longer we were there, the more normalized it was, and it seeped in so gradually that the unacceptable way that we were treated, became the norm. Taking time away from that space has been so good. For those of us who have, I feel like coming back, we bring a different experience and a grounding and a perspective that you just don’t have if you are forever defined in one space. I think it’s so important for anyone to take time away, especially those in the world of elite sport, to figure out who you are. And we are all so much more than the athlete that so many of us get our whole worth through in that short time that we are on the field.

So it was a great few days. A coming home of sorts in my heart to know the game is still my passion. My love. My space that I want to make a difference. A reminder that soccer can be used for so much good, instead of a weapon for harm.

It felt good and I am grateful to feel inspired and motivated by all the good, once again.

(Me and my new pals from the CONCACAF region below)