Beyond Bend It Like Beckham BEYOND Bend It Like BECKHAM THE GLOBAL PHENOMENON OF WOMEN’S SOCCER Timothy F. GraineyÊUÊForeword by Brittany Timko university of nebraska press s lincoln and london © 2012 by Timothy F. Grainey All rights reserved. Manufactured in the United States of America. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Grainey, Timothy F. Beyond “Bend it like Beckham”: the global phenomenon of women’s soccer / Timothy F. Grainey; foreword by Brittany Timko. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references. isbn 978-0-8032-3470-3 (pbk.: alk. paper) 1. Soccer for women—Cross-cultural studies. 2. Soccer—Social aspects— Cross-cultural studies. I. Title. gv944.5.g73 2012 796.334082—dc23 2011047387 Set in Sabon by Kim Essman. Designed by Annie Shahan. To my wife, April, and daughter, Arianna: two precious gems who make my life better in infinite ways Contents List of Illustrations ix Foreword xi Acknowledgments xv Introduction xvii PART ONE Rapid Growth in the United States 1 Title IX, Soccer Moms, and Pioneering Players 3 2 U.S. National Team, 1996–1999: “Welcome to Our Party” 17 3 Professional Women’s Soccer and the wusa: “The Best Three Years of My Life” 35 4 Women’s Professional Soccer (wps) 65 PART TWO Challenges in the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America 5 The State of the Game in the Middle East 105 6 Challenges and Successes in Africa 123 7 Latin America: Fighting Machismo Attitudes 139 8 Women Athletes: Objects versus Wholesome Role Models 163 PART THREE Building Leagues and National Team Programs 9 Ancestral Roots: Leveraging the Diaspora to Build the Game Abroad 181 10 National Leagues around the World 201 11 Overcoming a Fifty-Year Ban in England 215 12 Canada’s Youthful Road to Success 231 Conclusion: “The Future of Football Is Feminine” 241 Afterword: 2011 Women’s World Cup 247 Appendix of Tables 255 Selected Bibliography 267 Illustrations 1 Brittany Timko xii 2 Macke Mutz’s flip throw 9 3 Cindy Parlow coaching at a clinic in Bahrain 122 4 Goalkeeper Anna Picarelli versus Abby Wambach in an international match 183 5 Queensland (now Brisbane) Roar celebrate their 2008–9 title win 212 6 Queensland (now Brisbane) Roar coach and captain address the media 213 7 Canadian Women’s National Team coaching staff 233 Foreword When I was five years old I dreamed of playing in a World Cup, at the Olympics, and professionally. I told my parents, who have always been supportive. They told me to work hard at my dreams, and the opportunities would be endless. At the time, what I didn’t know was that some of my dreams weren’t very realistic. In 1990 there was no official women’s World Cup, women’s soccer wasn’t a part of the Olympics, and playing professionally would almost be laughable, as most countries barely recognized women as being able to play soccer. For me, my role models were male. I watched a documentary on Pele, and he immediately became my favorite player. I believed that if I had faith, when it was time for me to play, the opportunities would be there. So every day I went down to the park and juggled, dribbled, and kicked the ball against a wall. I would miss birthday parties for games because the games were just that much more fun for me. At school I waited for the bell to ring so I could play at recess and lunch. That was the highlight of my school day. Close to twenty years later, soccer has helped me to live my dreams and continue to make new ones. I’ve played in two world youth championships; in 2002 at the finals, we played in front of fifty thousand Canadians and had over a million watching on tv. I’ve been able to represent my country in two World Cups and re- cently the 2008 Olympics. It paid for my education, allowing me to xi 1. Brittany Timko with the Canadian National Team. (CanadaSoccer.Com/ Tony Quinn.) attend the University of Nebraska–Lincoln on an athletic scholar- ship. Soccer has allowed me to travel the world, competing against other countries, and has also allowed me to live and experience different cultures. And although it seemed unrealistic at the time, soccer has allowed me to play professionally. After graduating, I participated in the first year of the Australian W-League and saw xii FOREWORD firsthand the potential that the league has to grow over the com- ing years. From Australia I went to Sweden, where the league is already one of the best in the world and will undoubtedly continue to flourish. Then my travels took me to Germany’s top competitive league, as the country builds toward the 2011 World Cup as host. Looking forward, I think that Sepp Blatter was correct when he stated that “the future of football is feminine.” The passion and excitement that girls have to play soccer is continuing to grow. It is now realistic to dream of playing professionally. And finally, we are given the opportunities to show the world that we can play the beautiful game too. Beyond Bend It Like Beckham brings to life examples of women who have gone through highs and lows to achieve their dreams. It also shows us how far women’s soccer has come through the years and more importantly, that the sky is the limit in terms of how far it can go. FOREWORD xiii Acknowledgments This book celebrates the amazing journey of girls’ and women’s soccer, focusing on why the sport has become the number 1 sport for females globally and a vehicle for societal change. I’d like to thank Robert Taylor and his publishing team at the University of Nebraska Press, especially editorial assistant Courtney Ochsner, for their excellent guidance, effort, and belief in the proj- ect; my wife, April, for her poignant suggestions on the manu- scripts; my daughter, Arianna, for her photographic ideas; and Dan Lauletta, a freelance writer and womensprosoccer.com columnist, for his review of the wusa and wps chapters. I am indebted to Chris Vaughn Griffiths of World Football Pages of Canada, who brought me into the soccer journalism realm; John Turnbull of TheGlobalGame.com, and David Fleenor of Soccer365 .com, for their continued support of my articles on women’s soccer. Special mention for their assistance in numerous ways over the years must go to Rob Penner, the director of communications of Women’s Professional Soccer; Richard Scott, media officer of Canada Soccer; David Applegate in communications at U.S. Soccer; Dan Courtemanche at Major League Soccer (ex-wusa); the Equalizer soccer website founder, Jeff Kassouf; and the superb soccer correspondent Scott French. This book is a testament to the passion and commitment of women soccer players, coaches, and administrators around the xv world. There’s not enough space to thank all those who so freely gave of their time. Their stories were always enjoyable and edify- ing, but I would like to single out some who were instrumental in shaping this book (in alphabetic order): Tonya Antonucci, Melissa Barbieri, Eleni Benson, Shek Borkowski, Ian Bridge, Josee Busilacchi, Ann Chiejine, Marilyn Childress, Dr. Bob Contigulia, Leo Cuellar, Tonny Dijkhuizen, Dr. Sahar El-Hawary, Mary Harvey, Emma Hayes, Jeff Hopkins, Monica Jorge, Tanya Kalivas, Dalton Kaufmann, Noel King, Daniel Lato, Melissa Lesage, Jill Loyden, Aivi Luik, Anton Maksimov, Laura Pappano, Even Pellerud, Anna Picarelli, Ben Popoola, Katie Ratican, Jennifer Rottenberg, Monika Staab, Brittany Timko, Tim Ward, Tiffany Weimer, Kacey White, and Joao Maria Xavier. College head coaches Kevin Boyd at Arizona State and Brad Evans at the University of Toledo always shared ideas and con- tacts with players all over the world. fc Indiana head coach Shek Borkowski and general manager Anton Maksimov, now with the lta Agency, allowed me to closely follow fc Indiana for years and tap into the team’s unbelievable source of international players. Arizona Rush (Tucson) wpsl team coaches and directors Dalton Kaufman and Chris Sydney have openly and perceptively shared their approach to building a top-level women’s franchise. Kinsley Nyce has been a constant soccer traveler with me for years. Thanks to Brittany Timko for agreeing to share her story of “living the dream.” xvi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Introduction This book examines why soccer has become the most popular team sport for women and girls, not just in North America but globally as well. This process has taken only a few decades, which is shock- ing since some countries like Brazil and Germany even banned the sport in the 1960s and 1970s. Federation Internationale de Football Association (fifa), the sport’s governing body, determined through its Big Count global survey of participants that 26 million women played the sport in 2006; this is 10 percent of the estimated 265 million total players. Four million women and girls registered with a fifa member for an organized team, an increase of 54 percent since the previous survey in 2000. Millions around the world watch the Women’s World Cup every four years. Nowhere do so many girls and women play the game as in the United States, whose 1.6 million registered players are more than the sum total of the four- teen nations who rank behind it. Women’s soccer has brought new energy, ideas, opportunities, and fans to the sport. In the United States it is the biggest women’s college sport. In Canada, fully a third of all players are female, the highest percentage of any country or territory in the world, contributing to soccer eclipsing hockey as the most popular game among Canadian youth.