The bottom of the pyramid
Eorts are now on to resume sports in regions where the coronavirus situation is seemingly under control, but where does women’s sport stand in the scheme of things?
Women’s football was riding the wave after a largely successful and stupendously popular FIFA Women’s World Cup in 2019. The National Women’s Soccer League was about to begin in March in the United States to build on the popularity of the country’s fourth World Cup triumph. India, for its part, was getting ready to host the FIFA Women’s Under17 World Cup in November.
Equal pay, fair coverage and sponsorship interests were predominantly the topics of discussion in women’s football that looked set for heartening growth. The year 2020 looked promising to say the least. But the pandemic has put all plans on hold. Nations sealed their borders, the health and economy of the world took a beating, and sports came to a screeching halt in March due to COVID19.
Eorts are now on to resume sports in regions where the coronavirus situation is seemingly under control. Germany and South Korea have restarted their football leagues, and eorts are on to resume action in England, Spain and Italy.
But where does women’s football stand in the scheme of things?
Though Germany relaunched the women’s league — Frauenbundesliga — within two weeks of restarting the men’s league, the football federations in England, Spain and Italy have conrmed the cancellation of their women’s leagues while gearing up for the resumption of men’s football.
Brazil’s Renata Cicero Mendonca, a TV
sports commentator and cofounder of Dibradoras, a website that aims to raise visibility about women’s sports, threw light on the situation.
“I think it (women’s football) has always been at the bottom of the pyramid and suffers the most in situations like this. I believe it will have a huge impact. They already had little nancial support and you start hearing that clubs and federations will have many pay cuts, so it’s inevitable to think they will cut investments in the women’s sport rst because they don’t believe women can bring prot or at least can’t bring in as much as men,” she said.
Both men’s and women’s football are, however, on hold in Brazil. She spoke about how her country’s football federation was dealing with the crisis. “The Brazilian confederation made a donation to help clubs pay the salaries of the players for at least two months. They did this for women’s teams and men’s teams from the bottom divisions (third and fourth divisions). Some of the women’s clubs had to reduce the salaries of the players, but at least nobody here is talking about cancelling the women’s tournament,” she said.
But she believes women athletes will show resilience and bounce back as they have familiarity in dealing with tough situations.
“Women’s sports are kind of used to surviving without investments. Female athletes never had a lot of investments and they always found a way to survive. They are more used to breaking barriers and overcoming obstacles, so we might as well think they will know better how to deal with such a tough situation,” she said. “Women’s football never had money. It is just for the past few years that investments have started coming in, so it’s a challenge, but it wouldn’t be impossible to survive with less money now.”
“I think the worst thing is that women’s football was in ascension here (Brazil). It was a great moment, a lot of people were starting to follow it, more channels showed interest in broadcasting matches. And now it has all stopped and it’s hard to imagine it will be the same when everything is back. It will be dierent, but I think not everything will be lost,” she said.
Spain’s Pilar Casado Biesa, a sports reporter for Cadena COPE radio, oers a slightly dierent viewpoint despite the cancellation of the women’s league in her country.
“Only two professional leagues are going to resume — football and basketball (but men’s). Women’s football and basketball are cancelled as they are not considered highstakes professional leagues even if