Muristek
Pitch perfect: how women’s football revolutionised the game – and changed my life
When Suzanne Wrack fell in love with football as a young girl the sport was still a boys’ club. Now, with the Women’s Euros about to kick off in England, things have never looked so good
When you look at football in its rawest form, it is initially hard to see how it has become such a politically and financially powerful tool. From the Syrian refugees using breeze blocks as goalposts to the glistening multimillion pound academies of the world’s top clubs, the game remains, at heart, the same. It is a sport that, like rugby, cricket and tennis, can be picked up by just about anyone. Yet football stands alone – arguably commanding more respect and wielding greater power among ordinary people around the world than many governments.
Throughout history, the accessibility and universal appeal of football have made it a powerful means for fighting back against all forms of oppression, from Didier Drogba and his Ivory Coast teammates calling for an end to the civil war to Bundesliga clubs joining together against anti-immigration rhetoric, and from players taking the knee against racism to Marcus Rashford challenging the UK government over child food poverty. It is this side of the game that I love exploring: how football can be used as a force for good. Imagine what it could do for women – the 50% of the global population it has excluded for so long.
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