All things being equal...

The Women’s World Cup starts next month, and I am looking forward to it mightily.  I’ve had a life-long love of football and Mrs GOM despairs whenever there’s an international tournament during the Northern Hemisphere’s off-season, as the brief respite she gets from having to suffer the sport is foreshortened by the summertime coverage.

She does have the good grace to allow me to watch and has occasionally accompanied me to fixtures that she’d rather not sit through.  One such fixture was the 2012 Women’s Olympic final at Wembley, where not only Mrs GOM, but both the junior GOMs were hauled along.  Surprisingly, the enjoyment was unanimous.  We saw a brilliant game between the USA and Japan with the USA triumphing 3 – 0 and Daughter of GOM got to wave the flag of her birth-right with pride.

Despite the score, it was a very competitive match, played at high intensity and with all the skill and technique one would expect from an elite football match.  Joyously, the only thing lacking was the histrionics of the men’s game.  Tackled players popped to their feet without resorting to a quarter-length pitch roll à la Neymar; the absence of the theatrics did not diminish the theatre.  So, if you’ve never taken the time to watch the women’s game, I urge you to switch on the TV on 7 June, encourage your nearest and dearest to perch on the sofa with you, and enjoy the unfolding events.

Unfortunately, this year’s competition won’t be graced by Ada Hegerberg, who has been voted the BBC Women's Footballer of the Year 2019, an award which follows her win in 2018 of the inaugural Ballon d'Or Féminin, a prize determined by football journalists, that arguably crowns the best player in women’s football[1].  She has also just helped her club team, Olympique Lyonnais Féminin, to their fourth consecutive Champions League title, scoring a hat-trick along the way, in their 4 – 1 defeat of Barcelona.

Ada hails from Norway and would likely be the first name on the team sheet in every national manager’s team if they had a player with her talent.  She won’t, however, be attending the World Cup.  Not because Norway didn’t qualify, they did, winning their group.  She’s not injured either; judging from her performance in the Champions League final, she’s in the form of her life.  No, it’s much simpler than that.  Ada Hegerberg will not be attending the World Cup because in 2017, she walked away from Norway's national team after growing increasingly frustrated with its set-up and what she called a “lack of respect” for female players.

She’s a little reticent to go public with the specifics of her concerns; she fears distortion and has stated that “... things are going to blow up everywhere” if she speaks.  She has also said that she has been clear in her points with the Norwegian Football Federation (NFF) about what they need to do to improve equality in the game.  Bear in mind that the NFF was the first in world football to offer women pay parity with the men’s national team, but as Hegerberg said in a recent interview with the BBC, “It’s not always about money.  It’s all about attitude and respect.  We are talking about young girls, giving them the same opportunity as boys, giving them the same opportunity to dream.

“If you change those attitudes in the beginning, things will automatically change as well.

“The men in the suits cannot see that.  They’re going to understand one day that this is more about society than modern football.  It’s so important for me, that I can’t sit and watch things not going in the right direction. And it would be easy for me to perform, do my thing and just stay quiet.  But I think it’s so much bigger than that.

Martin Sjörgen, Norway’s coach who confirmed that Hegerberg would not play for the team said, “We tried to solve it, we had meetings, but she decided not to play."  Clearly, he and the men of the NFF did not try hard enough and have failed to address their much deeper failings.

The BBC interview and the comments from Sjörgen point to a more nuanced argument than one that can be addressed by mere structural changes, although pay parity is a small step in the right direction.  Fundamental change begins with a shift in attitude, a recognition that equality is needed regardless of gender.  Hegerberg’s voice is important and she recognises it, “Winning all these individual trophies or with a team, all the success gives you a voice.  And it’s not about me.  It’s never been about me.  It’s about getting the change that needs to be done for sport.”

But it’s not just in sport, it’s in all walks of life.  Change is required in schools, the workplace, and in society.  Equality isn’t a women’s issue.  It’s one for all of us, we have a shared responsibility to address the everyday imbalances that exist; in health, education, care giving, treatment in the media, representation, pay and opportunity; all are areas that need attention.

Ada Hegerberg has taken a bold stance, sacrificing her career as an international footballer.  Her voice is important, as are the voices of millions of other women, influential or otherwise.  What’s equally important is the need to listen to what they’re saying and to act.  That, I would argue, is very much a job for the men.

A postscript from Mrs GOM: In what is a rich irony, I gave the GOM one job to do today – to hang out the washing.  Needless to say, whilst he was advocating for women’s rights, the machine remained full until I got home from work to empty it.

Twitter: @GOMinTraining
Copyright © Craig Brown, 2019
24 May 2019

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[1] FIFA has a separate award for the women’s best player that last went to the Brazilian, Marta, a six-time winner.