Gender Discrimination in Football Building a Toolbox Toward Gender Equity in the Beautiful Game
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Gender Discrimination in Football Building a Toolbox Toward Gender Equity in the Beautiful Game Rachel Davidson Raycraft Rebecca Robinson Jolena Zabel WORKING PAPER 11 WORKING PAPER 11 RACHEL DAVIDSON RAYCRAFT University of Virginia School of Law, class of 2020 REBECCA ROBINSON University of Virginia School of Law, class of 2020 JOLENA ZABEL University of Virginia School of Law, class of 2021 CONTRIBUTORS NELSON CAMILO SÁNCHEZ LEÓN director of the International Human Rights Clinic, University of Virginia School of Law MARÍA XIMENA DÁVILA staff attorney, Dejusticia NINA CHAPARRO GONZÁLEZ gender justice coordinator, Dejusticia Gender Discrimination and the Fight for Equity in the World of Football Rachel Davidson Raycraft Rebecca Robinson Jolena Zabel Contributors: Nelson Camilo Sánchez León María Ximena Dávila Nina Chaparro González Working Paper 11 GENDER DISCRIMINATION AND THE FIGHT FOR EQUITY IN THE WORLD OF FOOTBALL Davinson, Rachel. Gender Discrimination and the Fight for Equality in the World of Football / Rachel Davinson Raycraft, Rebecca Robinson, Jolena Zabel. -- Bogota: Editorial Dejusticia, 2021. 95 pages; graphs; 24 cm. -- (Working Paper; 11) ISBN 978-958-5597-68-6 1. Gender discrimination 2. FIFA 3. Sport 4. Feminism. I. Tít. II. Series. ISBN 978-958-5597-68-6 digital version Center for the Study of Law, Justice and Society (Dejusticia) Calle 35 Nº 24-31, Bogotá, D.C. Telephone: (+57 1) 608 3605 [email protected] http://www.dejusticia.org This document is available at https://www.dejusticia.org Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Copy Editing: Morgan Stoffregen Layout: Marta Rojas Cover illustration: Elizabeth Builes Cover: Alejandro Ospina Bogotá, Colombia, April 2021 Contents Acronyms ................................................................................... 9 Introduction ............................................................................. 11 PART 1 GENDER DISCRIMINATION IN FOOTBALL ................................. 15 A Century of Discrimination .................................................. 15 Financial Compensation ....................................................... 16 Opportunities and Investment ............................................. 20 Sexual Harassment, Assault, and Gender-Based Discrimination ........................................................................ 23 Marketing and Media Attention ........................................... 24 Representation within Football Leadership ....................... 25 PART 2 A HUMAN RIGHTS LENS ON GENDER EQUITY IN SPORT ............................................................................................ 27 Global System ......................................................................... 28 Regional Systems ................................................................... 32 International Sports Bodies .................................................. 34 PART 3 FIFA AND DISPUTE RESOLUTION IN THE WORLD OF FOOTBALL ...................................................... 37 Structural Overview of Football ............................................ 37 Dispute Resolution Mechanisms in the World of Football ......................................................... 45 PART 4 TOWARD GENDER EQUITY: DOMESTIC CASE STUDIES ............................................................ 57 Equal Protection and Labor Rights ...................................... 57 Sexual Violence and Harassment ........................................ 84 PART 5 KEY TAKEAWAYS: HURDLES, OPPORTUNITIES, AND NEXT STEPS ...................... 93 On behalf of the University of Virginia School of Law International Human Rights Clinic, the authors would like to thank our partners at Dejusticia for allowing us the opportunity to conduct this urgent and necessary analysis of gender discrimination in football. BACK TO TABLE OF CONTENTS Acronyms AFA: Argentine Football Association AFF: Afghanistan Football Federation ANJUFF: [Chilean] Association of Women Football Players CAS: Court of Arbitration for Sport CBA: collective bargaining agreement CEDAW: Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women DRC: Dispute Resolution Chamber FAI: Football Association of Ireland FFA: Football Federation of Australia FIFA: Fédération Internationale de Football Association ICESCR: International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights IWG: International Working Group on Women and Sport NBA: National Basketball Association NDRC: national dispute resolution chamber NWSL: [US] National Women’s Soccer League PSC: Players’ Status Committee RSTP: Regulations on the Status and Transfer of Players UDHR: Universal Declaration of Human Rights UEFA: Union of European Football Associations UN: United Nations UNESCO: United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization USSF: United States Soccer Federation USWNT: United States Women’s National Team WNBA: [US] Women’s National Basketball Association Working Paper 11 9 BACK TO TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION The importance of gender and gender-based categorizations cling to the world of sport like no other realm of culture or society in the twenty-first century. While presented as natural, logical, and innate, the differential treat- ment of men and women and boys and girls in the world of sport is largely the product of over a century of global socialization intent on preserving sport as a male-dominated pastime, lifestyle, and avenue of opportunity. As the most popular sport worldwide, football (or soccer) may be the poster child for lingering gender disparities in sport. Despite women’s presence on the pitch since the turn of the twentieth century, govern- ments and football associations have proactively suppressed their ability to participate in the game through gender stereotypes, underinvestment, precarious professional opportunities, and disrespect. In part 1 of this report, we describe the forms of gender-based dis- crimination that female footballers suffer in varying degrees worldwide. Part 2 then frames this discrimination through a human rights lens, outlining the international and regional human rights principles that enshrine the right to sport and the right to nondiscrimination in sport. Part 3 describes the structure of the football industry, which is shaped and governed entirely by the Fédération Internationale de Football As- sociation (FIFA). This section focuses on FIFA’s governance framework, gender-related reforms, and preferred (or mandated) dispute resolution mechanisms. Each of these components of the football world highlights FIFA’s monopoly, complexity, opacity, and resistance to concrete change. Part 4 then highlights efforts around the world, largely outside of FIFA’s internal structure, where women and their allies have leveraged domestic courts, boycotts, sit-ins, and media campaigns to achieve gender parity and greater respect for female footballers. Finally, part 5 concludes with Working Paper 11 11 key takeaways and lessons learned based on the aforementioned aspects of women’s football experience: discrimination, institutional resistance, and the successes and failures of grassroots initiatives. Existing scholarship by lawyers, social scientists, and historians addresses aspects of the power dynamics and inequalities surrounding FIFA. Scholars and practitioners have highlighted FIFA’s sovereign and “law-like” private order,1 the association’s impact on the realization (or deterioration) of the human rights of its contract workers2 and players,3 FIFA’s ability to shape social constructs within the world of sport,4 the entrenched nature of gender discrimination in football,5 and FIFA’s gen- eral refusal to materially improve its practices when made aware of the abuses and inequities it instigates or perpetuates.6 This report adds to this 1 See Suren Gomtsian, Annemarie Balvert, Branislav Hock, & Oguz Kirman, Between the Green Pitch and the Red Tape: The Private Legal Order of FIFA, 43 YALE J. INT’L L. 85 (2018); see also Samuel Morris, FIFA World Cup 2022: Why the United States Cannot Successfully Challenge FIFA Award- ing the Cup to Qatar and How the Qatar Controversy Shows FIFA Needs Large-Scale Changes, 42 CAL. W. INT’L L.J. 541 (2012) (discussing the in- ability of countries to challenge many of FIFA’s decisions despite their mas- sive impact on residents and national economies). 2 See David Hess & Norman D. Bishara, Beyond Peace Doves: Respect- ing Human Rights and Combatting Corruption in Mega-Sporting Events, 37 B.U. INT’L L.J. 245 (2019); Azadeh Erfani, Kicking Away Responsibility: FIFA’s Role in Response to Migrant Worker Abuses in Qatar’s 2022 World Cup, 22 JEFFREY S. MOORAD SPORTS L.J. 623 (2015). 3 Daniela Heerdt, Mapping Accountability and Remedy Mechanisms for Sports-Related Human Rights Grievances: Background Paper for Strategic Dialogue on Remedy, CENTRE FOR SPORT AND HumAN RIGHTS (Apr. 2019), https:// www.sporthumanrights.org/media/dsflbmtq/mapping_accountability_rem- edy_mechanisms_cshr_april_2019.pdf; Zach Schreiber, The Right to Play: How Sports Leagues Worldwide Interfere with the Fundamental Right to Work, 25 SPORTS LAW. J. 19 (2018) (focusing on the right to work). 4 See PAUL DARby, AFRICA, FOOTBALL, AND FIFA: POLITICS, COLONIALISM, AND RESISTANCE (2002) (discussing how FIFA has shaped a misleading worldview regarding football in the African continent). 5 BRENDA ELSEY & JOshuA NADEL, FUTBOLERA; A HISTORY OF WOMEN AND SPORTS IN LATIN AMERICA, 81–82 (2019); Cassandra Clark, Leading or