Match week 37
A week in which Tottenham has set them themselves up for an exciting ending to the season, and we're so close to our 'hot girl' Euros summer we can feel almost the heat on our skin
Hey team,
I had to drop off the grid for a little bit, as I returned to the homeland to say goodbye to a loved one. Understandably it’s been a tough time but we’ve all been surrounded by so much love ♡
It’s been a very needed break, and I’ve also really missed checking in here. As everything and everyone is a brand nowadays, with well planned out content-schedules and what-not, I do enjoy being that bit of chaotic hurricane/a capricious breath of fresh air landing in your inbox at the time it needs, and not simply churning out text just because the content-calendar chimes. With that being said I want my actions to reflect my priorities and writing is always at the top of the list of what I love doing the most (and as most writers know, therefore it’s also the hardest thing to actually get done), and I also love all the people who are taking the time to read what I muse about. I’ve got some good things coming up so stay tuned for that.
I’m as timely as ever, as a lot of the football seasons in the big leagues are coming to an end and big finales are being played all over the place - however, there’s one league that’s only just getting started! The Swedish league, Damallsvenskan, only kicked off at the end of March, so we’ll be able to follow that one right up until the Euros start, as well as after! It’s a perfect time to get into the women’s football scene in Sweden, which is historic and trailblazing in sooo many ways, but has struggled to keep up in the past few years, as we’ve seen other leagues surpass them quite substantially. This is a topic that I definitely want to talk more around, as I find it rather saddening and also a bit intriguing, considering just how big and pivotal the league was to simply lose all pace and just peter out into some sort of lull. There might be valuable lessons that we can take with us going forward in the women’s sports industry, on keys to longevity and sustainability when it comes to running successful leagues.
AND today marks 50 days until the kick-off of the first Euros game.
Ada Hegeberg is BACK in the Norwegian national team and she only went and scored a hat-trick in her first game back. Having just returned from a long recovery nursing an ACL injury as well, what an incredible football player she is. Hegeberg left the national team back in 2017 after a very defeating stint in the Euros, as Ada was disappointed in the Norwegian football federation’s lack of priority when it came to the women’s and girls’ teams in everything from preparations to use of resources.
“It’s a hard balance because I’m a footballer not a politician,” she says. “You want all the hours on the pitch to be shown, you want all the sacrifice and all the love for the game to be shown and all the great people that you have around you. I’m not here to provoke in any way. I’m just here to perform and drive the sport in the right direction. But at the same time I am realistic about the situation we find ourselves still in, that there’s so much stuff to do in order for women and young girls to get the conditions they deserve.”
(here’s a good article with more on why she decided to stay away from the team)
I’m in awe of these decisions, both to leave and then to come back. In my perception there’s a huge lack of discourse around this, the fact that one of the best football players IN THE WORLD took a huge stand (when she was young nonetheless, only 22 years old and still at the dawn of her career in many ways) for her cause, that women’s and girls’ teams in the Norwegian football federation should be treated better, at a personal loss, not representing her country and knowing that a lot of people would judge her for that decision. I think there’s so many good conversations we could have around this, not the least accompanying the fact that this goes down in Norway, a country that, like Sweden, oftentimes suffers from this reputation as an equal utopia (which is clearly not the case), but there’s been a lack of multidimensional coverage on the issue.
Going back to the aforementioned Sweden - an unfair reputation is not the only thing we suffer from. They dropped their new kit ahead of the Euros and it is a massive case of AU-DACITY, as fuck.
Portland Thorns have announced a partnership with US Fertility to offer education and fertility care options to their players, which aims to aid in the players’ family-planning. They’re the second team in the NWSL to do it after Racing Lousiville FC announced a partnership with the Kentucky Fertility Institute.
THIS IS THE FUTURE. These are the kinds of moves we want to see women’s team make, consistently! Look to their players and what their needs are (rather than attempting to apply some arbitrary template from the men’s game.)The Scottish Football Writer’s Association gala dinner saw a WALK-OUT as tv-presenter Eilidh Barbour and co. went up and left the function after a speaker expressed himself in a sexist and racist manner (and that was only five minutes into the speech.) Eilidh herself tweeted:
“NEVER FELT SO UNWELCOME IN THE INDUSTRY I WORK IN THAN SITTING AT THE SCOTTISH FOOTBALL WRITERS AWARDS” - yikes. Must’ve been quite a speech, lol
(i’m masking hurt with humour, bear with me)
The women’s Champion’s League is back for one last game, after we’ve been blessed with an exhilarating season of international teams going head-to-head and some fantastic match-ups on the way to determine the winner, and the last two standing are now preparing to battle it all out in Torino on Saturday (21st May 19:00 GMT),
and I’ll be there *wee sob of happiness*
Made a very spontaneous and last-minute decision (incredibly unlike a calculated Capricorn like myself) to go down to Milano and Torino for the game, it’s been years since I was there the last time and I’m so very excited to go back. For an occasion like this nonetheless! When I’m not enjoying the world class football I will be soaking up the sun and eating lots of food.
And talking about the Champion’s League … Tottenham’s men’s team has had such a fantastic last few games, drawing against Liverpool and winning convincingly 3-0 against Arsenal to put themselves in a more favourable position for top 4, which was then followed up with a grinded-out 1-0 win against Burnley, and the football gods (or whatever) were then in our favour, seeing Arsenal losing 2-0 to Newcastle meaning that we passed them for a top 4 spot and now have everything in our own hands as we go into the final round of games! What a glorious note to end on.