Today, Friday, is the first day in two weeks in which we won’t be getting any action from the tournament and I don’t know how to feel about this. I’ve become dependent on watching and live-reacting to 22 sweaty players battle it out. My morning routine is no longer complete if it doesn’t include a hysteric breakdown over yet another unexpected and fantastic result, tears dripping into my morning coffee (and post-lunch refill, and afternoon top-up). I’m terrible at math and I don’t want to count out how many hours I’ve spent in front of screens for the past two weeks. I have however been happy to keep up with the maths on the ever-changing tables for the advancements of the teams at the World Cup because … priorities.
This is the treacherous thing about entering a tournament bubble. You might start off slow, adapting to the environment until you eventually start depending on its structure but this shift is slow, it creeps up on you. All the old routines are out and you’re thriving on the change of pace. A 6:45am rise has never felt easier. Whether you’re on your vacation or at work there’s now a myriad excuses to take breaks and get out of doing boring things with a “oh sorry I can’t, the football is on.” There’s always something to talk about with people and conversation flows more easily because you can just pivot to ask if they watched the game this morning and berate them if they didn’t. Then there’s a break in play for one (1) day, everything screeches to a halt and you realise that there is a world outside of 6hr football days. It might not be as adrenaline-fuelled as Group H, but your eyes will thank you.
I’m going to visualise the players resting up, doing fun things and maybe getting to turn their minds off a bit from the weight of this next phase. Focus on the good stuff. I’ve put down an itinerary of things to do to keep me occupied for today and future days off, as there won’t be as many games going forward. Maybe you need it too?
PIECES TO READ:
This is an interesting read from Samantha Lewis on that time when the Matildas raised funds ahead of the Olympics in Sydney 2000 by making a nude calendar and getting in trouble with the Australian government. Pfew. Where to start? It was obviously a great idea in a marketing and money-bringing sense as the calendar became a huge hit, but should a national team have to raise their own funds? In terms of representation it did a lot to show the public another side of female athletes, and some of the players reportedly found it really empowering.
“Indeed, the calendar is one of the major flashpoints in the history of the Matildas, which highlighted simmering stereotypes regarding women athletes' identities, pushing back against the idea that they were simply 'masculine women' or 'butch lesbians'.
[…] In fact, the calendar featured one of the first public representations of a gay couple in Australian sport when Alison Forman and her then-partner Sharon Black posed together in the month of April.”
At the same time there’s talk about potential financial coercion and missing funds, and it’s not clear exactly how much money was made. The girls (yes, one player was only 17 at the time of the photoshoot and had to get written consent from her parents) were paid in toothpaste and a wad of cash. The article is great, really well-balanced and yes, it includes photos lol.
Great piece from before the tournament on how Morocco’s success is a long time in the making. Their first-ever women’s team was formed in 1997, but it would take trials and tribulations, as well as a prolonged hiatus, before the Atlas Lionesses were re-assembled in 2017. Two years later, “the federation launched a fully professional national football league and regional second tier. They committed to paying the salaries of 25 players per team and eight staff, including U-17 and U-15 coaches, for 42 clubs across the country, making Morocco the first country in the world to have two tiers of professional women’s football.”
Viewership for the women’s World Cup has been amazing, despite a lot of people being skeptical considering the at times uncomfortable viewing hours due to the time zones, and people in the business are positive this is going to pay off for sponsors who will see return on their investment, and more. “According to the Office for Women in Sport and Recreation in Victoria Australia, women's elite sport outperforms men's when it comes to factors such as (1) brand awareness, (2) brand consideration, and (3) customer conversion,” Lindsey Darvin reports for Forbes. “In their recent market research report, it was determined that for every $1 corporate sponsors invest into women’s elite sport, on average they will realize $7.29 customer value in return,” she continues. Again numbers is not my strong suit but even I dare to say that’s … QUITE A FUCKING RETURN ON YOUR INVESTMENT. The article also mentions the possibility of brands shifting money away from the men’s game into the women’s game. That shift would be interesting, and not frictionless …
“YOUR PELVIC FLOOR IS THE EPICENTRE FOR A FEMALE ATHLETE” Emma Hayes is at it again. Brilliant article for The Times on how women are not small men, Chelsea’s pelvic floor coach and the multi-pronged approach to developing and keeping women’s football healthy and minimising injury. I also love how this headline makes me think of the pelvic floor as a call centre on a big literal floor where people are running around, staying in touch and communicating what is going on everywhere. It is an area closely connected to sex, for obvious reasons, historically something women have been shamed for (and still are to an extent), which is making me love the reclamation and focus on this even more.
I’ve also got a few longer pieces lined up, addressing FIFA’s blatant opposition to the LGBTQIA+ cause and looking at the shifting power dynamics in the global women’s game and the struggles of Norway, USA and Germany. 🤠💖🌻So keep an eye out for that🌻💖🤠
PODCASTS:
The 91st podcast with Katie Nolan, who is a beloved host, and I have completely fallen in love with Midge Purce. The Gotham FC forward has a lot of good takes and she makes a good pair together with Katie. »Here’s their latest episode«
Christen Press and Tobin Heath’s podcast the re-cap show. The couple is able to bring such a unique perspective. This episode with Abby Dahlkemper talking about playing under an abusive coach (from 44:30) makes the hairs on my neck stand up.
Not me crying over this comment from Christen about her time at Chicago Red Stars: “It was an abusive and toxic environment the entire time and I didn’t even know it, actually. Tobin yanked me out of that environment essentially. She said ‘enough’s enough. This is going over the line, you can’t stay.’ I had this whole complex of ‘I can’t leave the girls.’ I tried to fix everything from the inside and I thought I was the one that could stand up, I was trying to make it better and Tobin was like ‘you’re not well, you need to leave.’”
🫶Episode with Nigel James, father of Reece and Lauren James, on their respective careers - mainly Reece’s but from 1:04:55 they discuss LJ. Only about 10-15 minutes in total but he’s giving great insight to her journey and what she’s been through. Makes you reflect on the lack of proper structures for developing young girls and the impact it has on individual players. Also interesting to hear the ways the siblings football journeys have been separate and intertwined. Katie Whyatt also wrote an article for the Athletic on the world’s future best player.
I would highly recommend going through SEASON zine’s podcast archive! They’ve got some good episodes in there, like this one with designer Hattie Crowther who makes non-binary corsets out of old football shirts (and has a new collab with Nike coming out).
NEWSLETTERS:
Flo gives us daily dispatches on the tournament and she (or her gf) has been doing the comparative % math that I cannot on points acquired by CAF/CONCACAF/CONMEBOL teams, super interesting. Yash has a similar daily update from the tournament with even more numbers and tactical breakdowns, and although numbers make me go 😵💫 I love when people explain things to me in an accessible way, and Yash incorporates a lot of visual aids. This one on match day 11, which included the Colombia - Germany game, was great.
THREE THINGS UNRELATED TO FOOTBALL:
Good TV shows: The Bear (no football, just kitchen and Yes Chef), The Last of Us (no football, just survival with Pedro Pascal), Atypical (no football just all the feels), Abbott Elementary (no football just jokes and clever writing).
Go to your nearest library and get a book by bell hooks (All About Love and Communion are both stellar).
The best enchiladas of all time. You’re welcome.