Congratulations Swedish football!
More and more women are choosing to train as elite trainers.
Female leaders are needed – as well as in boys’ and men’s football.
“Fucking fit pussy!”
It was hard to ignore the words of the opposing team’s coach.
“what do you say?”, I cried, realizing that perhaps it was best to remain silent.
“It wasn’t for you and you understand that either.”was the short answer.
Emotions oozed. On our team we try to have a zero tolerance for sexism and I would be happy if our players didn’t have to hear that from an opposing coach. The talking continued after the game, we equalized in the final minutes away from home and the mood lifted before we got it all down in conversation with an adult.
The situation happened just two weeks after witnessing the biggest rant I’ve ever seen in youth sports. A young middle-aged coach had painfully underestimated his young players. It wasn’t a hair dryer, it was a hurricane. Specifically the ones that don’t make young people grow old.
The events are taken from this season’s Junior Series matches at Sweden’s regional elite level.
I could describe a series of athletic, respectful meetings with all sensible male coaches and leaders who were on the other side or more often the same side — I don’t put everyone together — but negative experiences have their place in this context.
It’s not just about gender, but I fully believe that football (like most organizations) would benefit from broader leadership, and one way to achieve that is to create teams with both male and female leaders.
And now the world is changing a bit.
Male display in tech
The interest of women in training to become elite soccer coaches was previously low. In 2021, only one woman participated in the UEFA-B level training for the 11 vs 11 format. And now the Swedish Football Association announces that 210 women have applied to take part in the course. This is a result of Tränarlyftet, an initiative of the SvFF and one of the sponsors of the association. 96 of them get a chance at the chocolate sponsor-funded places.
The reason for the previously lukewarm interest was that many women leaders experienced the environment in the training sessions as boyish, monogamous, and also suffered from a lack of financial support from their clubs. Frankly, some parts of the coaching practice I’ve attended by course participants tend to be a masculine display of technical brilliance with their retired football feet, rather than a constructive, thorough conversation.
Per Widén, Head of Education and Development at SvFF, is pleased to note:
– Cool shit, if I may say so! We had a meeting where we had to market the project in connection with Sweden’s game against Brazil this summer. A hundred girls wanted to come. It was huge to see the commitment. Then you can always ask why we haven’t done this before…
It will pave the way for more
Could you. Better late than never, though. In a press release earlier this week, Per Wejden stressed that the new female models should pave the way for more young girls and that the result would be a more equal Swedish football.
After a conversation with Per Widén, I know he has hope that female captains will also be given assignments in boys’ and men’s football.
And if there’s anywhere they need it, it’s right there!
For this to happen, clubs need to support, promote and promote female leaders. Yes, indeed, female powers (present in both men and women) are allowed to embrace training environments, so that leadership becomes mature at all levels not least among junior teams. There are a lot of angry players, managers and parents gossiping about. Adrenaline is part of it, and what we do with it is key.