Match week 16
A week in which Sweden FINALLY agrees to equal pay for their national teams but a Rayo Vallecano player has to be treated by Barcelona's medical staff, and dif outcomes to racism rearing its ugly head
I’m landing here in a good frame of mind, as I spent the morning watching the highlights from the Tottenham - Liverpool men’s game from yesterday. WHAT. A. GAME.
It’s been a long time since I saw my beloved Spurs play with any sort of finesse and confidence, but last night’s game was really something as several players stepped up, the partnership between Harry Kane and Heung Min-Son is flowing again, Tanguy Ndombele is putting through insane passes, Pierre-Emile Højbjerg was (not) on top of it (update: I was tired and in true bad football fan spirit have of course just watched the grainy highlights videos - I’ve been informed he did not play. My mistake!) and generally, putting such a good team like Liverpool in their place (the game ended 2-2 but it was definitely Tottenham who dominated and had the best chances).
(yes, really!)
I watched these highlights from my dad’s house in Sweden, where I’ve landed for the holidays, and he was excited to let me know that the Swedish FA have reached an agreement for equal pay between their two national teams. That means they’re joining the likes of New Zealand, Norway, Australia, England, Brazil and the latest addition, Ireland, in paying their men’s and women’s team the same for representing the national team. Not a fucking day too late! It has been a big talking point in Sweden for a long time - several years - seeing as the country is considered to be one of the most gender equal countries in the world yet they fail to compensate their football players accordingly. This hits especially hard when you consider the fact that Sweden is in a similar position to the US women’s national team in terms of having had a lot more success than their male counterparts (this summer’s silver medal at the Olympics, and the bronze medal at the 2019 World Cup comes to mind, currently being ranked no.2 on the FIFA world ranking). Much like their American counterparts they also took the matter to an official body in an effort to sort out the question about equal pay.
The only thing was that, in August 2020, the Equality Ombudsman (which is a government agency in Sweden that promotes equal rights) concluded that the women’s national team players were not discriminated against on the basis of them receiving lower pay than the men’s team (less than a quarter of what the men’s team got in compensation!), which ultimately saw the men’s team forgoing all financial compensation until the women’s team were paid the same (via Christos Kassimeris, Discrimination in Football.) They have now finally reached a deal and the response from the captain of the women’s national team, Caroline Seger, is straight to the point:
(“… and it feels good that a new contract is in place. This is yet another step to give us the best possible prerequisites to succeed on the pitch.”)
Earlier in the week an image emerged from a game between FC Barcelona and Rayo Vallecano, in which an injured Rayo player was being treated by the medical staff of Barca. Context was soon given online, as it turns out that Rayo does not provide their women’s set-up with a medical team, leaving their players at the mercy of their opponents (quite literally). The conditions in the club, which include poor training facilities and bad pay, have been reported by the union for Spanish female football players to the country’s Department of Work and Social Security in November. There’s a substantial article listing many more of the issues here by Andrea Sanchis.
Their men’s team is currently fourth in La Liga, having gotten promoted this season after a few seasons in the lower divisions, and beat Barcelona in October. They’re also well-known for having a big fanbase with left-leaning political views and the Rayo ultras often display anti-racist and anti-fascist messages, which makes the lack of visible support for their women’s team stand out all the more.
As we know, the issue of sexism is still ripe in the game of football, and unfortunately the same goes for racism. Vincent Kompany, as at least I know best as a Manchester City legend, is now back in his native Belgium coaching RSC Anderlecht, and he took to social media to vent about continuous racist abuse that him and his players received by the opposing team Club Brugge’s fans at the weekend’s, as he was simply “disgusted”. He was then backed up by his countryman Romelu Lukaku who said “f*** you and your hashtags. Take some real action.” It was aimed at the Pro League (the Belgian top division) but to be honest, that could go to a number of different institutions in this current climate where everyone wants to desperately appear anti-racist, but all they manage to do is appear as fools as no real change is seen.
One way to at least try to implement change is by … simply doing it. At the weekend, a game in the German third division between VfL Osnabrück and Duisburg was abandoned as Osnabrück player Aaron Opoku was racially abused during a game, and both teams walked off. This is the first time ever that a professional football game in Germany was abandoned due to a racist incident. Osnabrück CEO Michael Welling expresses a will to move beyond the anti-racist t-shirts and slogans into action. Due to the lower status of the game, there’s a cynic in me that wants to point out that the likelihood of this happening in the top division of any of the big leagues are pretty small, due to the large financial investments, and therefore the cynic likes to pose the question: is the club just getting clout (and publicity) for doing this.
That’s when I need to remind my cynic of the fact that several things can exist at once. That it can be problematic that vested interests will take priority over players’ wellbeing as they’re being discriminated against, that clubs have to operate with the media in mind (including social media), and the fact that this game was still abandoned due to some idiot racially abusing a football player.