Il Mondiale femminile di calcio in Oceania 2023 – Prima parte

Pubblicato il di Dario Focardi

Quello che state per leggere è il primo di una serie di articoli in cui vi racconterò i progetti che Australia e Nuova Zelanda stanno mettendo in campo per far crescere il movimento calcistico femminile sui propri territori in qualità di co-organizzatrici del prossimo Mondiale femminile di calcio FIFA 2023.  In questa prima parte troverete l’analisi del dossier che le due nazioni hanno presentato alla FIFA e che ha permesso loro di vincere l’assegnazione del Mondiale. Buona lettura.


IL DOSSIER: IDEE E SGUARDO VERSO IL FUTURO

Il Mondiale femminile di calcio FIFA 2023 sarà il primo in assoluto che si giocherà in Oceania. Il ticket Australia e Nuova Zelanda ha presentato un progetto molto interessante e innovativo che ha convinto i grandi elettori del massimo ente internazionale del calcio ad assegnare loro l’organizzazione di quello che è ad oggi il terzo evento più importante del panorama sportivo internazionale. Nel momento esatto in cui è stata decretata l’assegnazione sono stati stabiliti due record:

  1. Primo mondiale ospitato da due nazioni diverse.
  2. Primo mondiale ospitato da due confederazioni diverse – dal 2005 l’Australia fa parte della AFC (Asian Football Confederation), mentre la Nuova Zelanda è nella OFC (Oceania Football Confederation).

Il resto dell’articolo lo trovate su Zarina Newsletter, mentre qui trovate l’articolo su #Legacy23 uscito qualche settimana

***ENGLISH VERSION***

Quello che state per leggere è il primo di una serie di articoli in cui vi racconterò i progetti che Australia e Nuova Zelanda stanno mettendo in campo per far crescere il movimento calcistico femminile sui propri territori in qualità di co-organizzatrici del prossimo Mondiale femminile di calcio FIFA 2023.  In questa prima parte troverete l’analisi del dossier che le due nazioni hanno presentato alla FIFA e che ha permesso loro di vincere l’assegnazione del Mondiale. Buona lettura.

THE DOSSIER: IDEAS AND A LOOK TOWARDS THE FUTURE

The 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup will be the first ever to be played in Oceania. The Australia-New Zealand ticket has presented a very interesting and innovative project that has convinced the great voters of the highest international soccer body to assign them the organization of what is currently the third most important event on the international sports scene. At the exact moment in which the assignment was decided, two records were set:

  1. First World Cup hosted by two different nations.
  2. First World Cup hosted by two different confederations – since 2005 Australia has been part of the AFC (Asian Football Confederation), while New Zealand is in the OFC (Oceania Football Confederation).

 

The two nations, geographically oceans apart, are a point of reference when it comes to equality and the gender gap, and the dossier presented to FIFA confirms this. The incipit is clear on what assumptions are driving the organizing committee:

“We are two countries with a total population of more than 29 million people of very different origins, more than 200 nationalities, united by our multiculturalism and our passion for sports.

A passion that will translate into stadiums full of enthusiastic fans who, we are sure, will support each participating team as if it were the ‘home team’. We are the bridge between two confederations: Asia and Oceania. We bring the opportunity to lead the development of women’s soccer in two distinct regions but united by the love of the game.

We are nations that are champions of gender equality and women’s empowerment with exemplary records of commitment to building projects that allow certain goals to be achieved sooner rather than later.”

AUSTRALIA

Australia is one of the strongest national soccer teams in the world. Currently seventh in the FIFA ranking, it has all the credentials to try to win the World Cup at home: a group of players of absolute value such as Samantha Kerr, implacable center forward for Chelsea, young players who are already protagonists in the most important leagues such as Ellie Carpenter, starting left back at only twenty years of age for Olympique Lyonnais, and a professional league, the Westfield League, that has nothing to envy from the European ones. The foundations of Australian women’s soccer appear solid and on top of them the Australian government has begun to build a house of rights for women and girls. A path that guarantees access to the sport practiced and preparation to become managers of the national soccer federation, the FA (Football Australia).

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As of 2019 there are 110,000 registered female soccer players, which is a great figure, but not by Australian standards. In fact, they represent only 21% of all Australian registered players, including men. To overcome this high gender gap, the FA, in collaboration with the Ministry of the Interior, has decided to activate a focus on soccer within the Gender Equality Action Plan. The introductory sheet of this plan of action describes well what is the commitment of government forces in this area:

“Our ministry is fully committed to achieving an inclusive culture in which our female citizens feel valued, motivated, and confident to contribute in all workplaces.”

By 2026, the FA aims to achieve a 50 percent proportion of men and women enrolled in football.

The axes of intervention of this plan are multiple. The most important is Football your way, an initiative that encourages women of all ages to play soccer through some specific actions:

  • Soccer Mums program: soccer program that encourages mothers to stay physically active through soccer.
  • Kick on: introductory soccer program for girls ages 13-17.
  • FootLanguages: program that uses soccer as a multicultural and linguistic tool to ensure facilitated social inclusion for migrant women of all ages.
  • Two new forms of the game: walking football and social summer football.

With these actions the participation and the approach to the game of girls and women have significantly increased. But the FA wanted to take a further step forward. So, after having obtained the certainty of the organization of the 2023 World Cup, the federal leadership began to think about new participatory models to be implemented in view of the World Cup, and in this case, too, ideas were born that should be observed carefully:

  • Creation of Academies: exclusively female: to increase the possibility of access to soccer of the female gender. The Academies will be managed directly by the Australian Football Federation.
  • Construction of new infrastructures and soccer fields: to arrive at 100 new sports centers throughout the country.
  • Creation of additional franchises for Westfield League: expand the national league to achieve full coverage in all Australian states.

For the FA, these three nodes are focal to the development of a serious women’s soccer project. If you guarantee a team of reference in all Australian states, it will become easier that in each of them there is a sports center that acts as an aggregator for all those women who want to play soccer. In a country as large as Australia, it is necessary for the possibilities of access to sports and football to increase. At the moment most of the sports centers and academies are concentrated in the Southeastern states: New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia. In the coming years, the FA will also cover the rest of the country, reaching 100 federal centers for the development and growth of the talent of Australian female football players.

The last axis present in the national plan concerns the improvement of the capacity building of women and girls. The FA and the Australian federal government recognize the social importance of working to build high-level female leadership. Their ultimate goal is to ensure a decisive role in the decision-making process of the Australian football movement tout court. To this end, the Women’s Football Council was created within Congress, which will manage an ongoing mentoring program to identify and develop future female leaders for Australian soccer and beyond.

NEW ZEALAND

 

New Zealand is the leading nation of the OFC (Oceania Football Confederation) and currently the women’s national soccer team occupies the 22nd position in the FIFA world ranking. The Football Ferns – the nickname by which the players of the national team are known – are an important reference point for the entire New Zealand society. As in the USA, in New Zealand women’s soccer is the number one sport played by girls and young women, and its further consolidation is a strategic priority for NZF (New Zealand Football) and the government led by Jacinda Ardern, the first minister re-elected with a large majority in 2020.

If Australia is a prime example of using soccer as a tool for social betterment, New Zealand is a global vanguard. In 2008 it hosted the first edition of the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup and since 2010 the NZF has had a president, Johanna Wood, at its helm. All the projects that have been carried out since 2010 are the result of a social dynamism that has few equals in the world and have allowed us to have 40% female representation in the governing bodies of New Zealand soccer. We are truly at the antipodes with respect to Italy, not only geographically.

The priority intervention plan identified by the New Zealand Football Federation is called Map to success and thanks to it, in the last 5 years, there has been a 35% growth in the number of female members of the youth sectors of the state federations, with a constant increase year on year of 7%.

Before continuing with the analysis, it is important to clarify how the management of soccer in New Zealand works. At the top of the pyramid is the National Football Federation (NZF), below are the various state federations that each independently manage their own Academy and their respective local leagues. Basically, the central government gives the general guidelines, while the local authorities realize them in their own territories. In New Zealand, at the football level, there is still no professionalism and this double level of control has ensured fairness and horizontal access to sport for all.

Since 2011, the New Zealand Football Federation has launched Whole of Football, an intervention plan recognized by FIFA as one of the most innovative soccer development projects ever implemented. It breaks down as follows:

  • First Kicks: program aimed at preschool girls, where they start having fun with the ball between their feet.
  • Fun Football Centres: creation of fun soccer centers where children in the first cycle of elementary school play soccer consistently.
  • Future Ferns Development Program: program for young female soccer players selected to be part of the national youth teams.
  • Go Programme: a programme for adult women who want to return to playing soccer.

The success of this plan has exceeded all expectations. The 2020 data provided by the national federation shows that in 10 years the base of female players, coaches, referees and administrators has increased. This success has allowed greater attention to be paid to the development of the talent of the best young players, has guaranteed the creation of a national women’s championship that from this year has taken the name of ISPS Handa Women’s Premiership, which has seen 6 teams at the starting line-up, and, for the first time, a broadcaster – Sky Sport Next – has guaranteed free live coverage of all the championship matches on its YouTube channel.

Improving the visibility of women’s soccer is crucial for the growth of a movement, with a view to also working on the change of narrative that revolves around it. Therefore, broadcasting the matches for free on the most popular social networks can only represent a further step towards the construction of a different general approach to women’s soccer.

Everything you’ve just read may sound like something out of a Philip K. Dick novel, but it’s not. It’s not science fiction, it’s reality.

Australia and New Zealand are not earthly paradises, they too live the contradictions of a turbo-capitalist society. The difference with Italy is that they do not adapt. They think and work to improve the living conditions of all citizens, without gender, disability or origin creating unnecessary barriers. A lesson and a way of approaching life that we should keep well in mind.

 

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