Women’s football is growing in the country and expectations are rising as the playoffs for the women’s national league title take place. However, there are some structural reforms that are necessary for professionalization. It was in this spirit that La República spoke to the journalist miracle loayza, The founder of specialist media Mujeres FC, who explained how these changes have taken place over the past few years, stressed the importance of specialized areas and spoke about the painful episode during the press conference of the team’s coach Emily Lima.
How did you get into the world of football?
For as long as I can remember I’ve been playing soccer. My mother tells me that she kicked her in the womb. I think football has become my favorite sport from then on. I cultivated this passion with my parents and uncles who played football. In those years the situation was very difficult. Now girls have some freedom to practice the sport.
The openness is greater, more and more women’s football academies are emerging.
At least 20 years ago it was difficult to find a specialized football academy for women. If a girl played football, then she was in the boys’ academies. You would find someone joining the tournaments with fear, with uncertainty about what they are going to say. Now the thinking is changing, it looked bad before. Thanks to this struggle and this perseverance, we are now experiencing. That’s why I created my portal because there was a need to find out that there are women who play soccer. The same soccer players also felt the need to have their goals and their celebrations reflected on the screens.
Alianza Lima is the current two-time Women’s League champion. Photo: Lima Alliance.
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That is also presented as a self-criticism that we have to make, because women’s football has not had that much visibility so far.
The gender perspective in the media is not latent. This means that many media outlets are not interested in covering women’s sport in general. Most of the articles are aimed at men, and women’s athletic achievements are only discussed when they win a medal, as in the case of Kimberly (García) in the march (…). Women are trained not only to play football, but also to run a media company or a club. It’s what you see now: women are running spaces that didn’t exist before.
How much has women’s football changed in recent years?
It’s changed too much. When we played the Metropolitan Tournament everything was in the Videna. Basically it was on the grass pitch where the men of the national team normally train. In order not to spoil this field, they later moved the tournament to artificial turf. All games were played there. You realize that there is a significant change (…). Now the media is starting to show more interest. In 2019, before the Women’s League existed, La Videna was played and there was no access to the press. Many of us stayed outside waiting for the door to open. The Federation didn’t have the logistics to accommodate us and other factors. These are things we had to go through.
The rules are also discriminatory. When a player in the Copa Perú was 30 years old, he was not allowed to transfer to another club and had to ‘die’ playing at the club he was registered with. That was prevented by the regulations. They started to get it because there were a lot of players over 30 who had to go out and play for other teams and couldn’t. The men’s league clubs started to form their women’s division and they wanted the best; They couldn’t make it because the best were in the Copa Peru.
All of that came out. The association recognized this and founded the women’s league. And thanks also to the push of the players. In 2019, there was a wave of lawsuits with the “We want to be seen” movement. A whole wave of claims and complaints erupts and the association begins to take action on the matter.
A number of reforms have been announced over the past year, particularly in men’s football, with some mentioning that a plan for women’s football, futsal and beach soccer will be drawn up by 2024. Is there scope for these reforms in the clubs?
They talked a bit about restructuring the association’s universe, but didn’t go much deeper into women’s football. I imagine part of that lies in the team’s new technical leadership. A long-term position with Professor Emily (Lima) is being considered. As the host of an important tournament like the Copa Libertadores or the Copa América, we have never organized any of these tournaments like other South American countries have done. From then on, the change must come, so that the league continues to consolidate, that the clubs continue to focus on the professionalization of their players. Only two teams have professional players in their roster and not all of them are complete, they have seven which is the minimum required for professionalization. These are Alianza and Universitario.
FPF reforms for Peruvian football. Photo: Capture/WebFPF.
One of the aspects that draws attention is the duration of the championship. The tournament ends and the champions go to the Libertadores, but what about the other clubs? How do they manage to support themselves and how are uncontracted players supported?
That’s one of the downsides. The tournament is very short. It is not like the masculine that the champion has an entry for the following year. For women, you have to go straight to the Champions League and switch to the Libertadores. Since there are no professional contracts, many players have contracts as service managers. So the season ends and the contract ends with it. They remain on the air between two and three months as the club no longer recognizes any payments or benefits. This is one of the weaknesses that need to be addressed in the short or medium term. Many clubs only begin to realize after their third year that women’s football is a product that needs to be sold in the best possible way.
Many clubs assume they have to comply because FIFA, Conmebol or the FPF require it. But there are others who recognize that it is a viable product that can be sustained over time if structural and organized work is done. Behind a football team there are many things that need to be looked at with different eyes so that professionalization can take place soon.
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Regarding the reforms, I recently recalled the complaint from the Atlético Trujillo team leader. In a way, this shows the lack of a gender perspective in the clubs and in the association itself.
There is still work to be done on the structure and development areas that every club should have. In Argentina, for example, there are many clubs with gender sections where there are specialists who can help the player solve an infinite number of problems. They are specialists who can help players deal with any situation that comes their way. In the case of Atlético Trujillo, a complaint of psychological abuse and harassment also reveals a little of the shortcomings that the clubs have and which are not monitored by the federation. We are aware that the association does not have a dedicated section for women’s football. There is a development area that includes futsal, beach soccer and women’s soccer. All of these are immersed in a single area. It’s very difficult because there are one or two people for four or five sports disciplines. I think the FPF needs to start restructuring to separate the sports. In this way, they can contribute more to solving problems within the clubs.
In terms of the regional panorama, how do you see the growth of countries like Colombia, Argentina, Venezuela and Chile itself, which lagged behind the gates of the World Cup?
That’s what I told you about the specific areas of development in women’s football that are clearly geared towards women’s football. The Brazilian Football Federation does that very well. New areas of development for minors, led by former players, have been unveiled in the pandemic. Things like that help. They also have very solid grassroots tournaments. Peru must emulate this in order to continue rising.
What happened to Colombia is a situation that makes me feel good. Their league is a professional league in quotes, but it’s a league that has less staying power than ours: it lasts between three and four months and every year there are questions as to whether or not it will take place. The players are always in that constant doubt… But the good thing about Colombia is its teams. The senior team is second in America and is playing the World Cup. The U17 became Vice World Champion. For you, that speaks of long-term development and work at national team level. They also reached the final of the Copa Libertadores with the clubs and challenged the Brazilians for the title. This testifies to the work many years ago when the South American U12 or U14 players played in Chile, the Colombians became champions and the whole universe grew and matured and many of them now represent the national team. They brought to life a Colombia that no one in South America had registered.
Colombia is second in the world rankings in the U17 category. Photo: Twitter/FIFA.
Before that, in 2003, when there was South America, Peru sat alongside Brazil, Argentina and even Chile. Then came Colombia or Venezuela. What they have done is admirable. It was the players themselves who started talking about what was happening inside the federation, the media showed much more interest, people started to support them and there was a wave of complaints happening nowadays It contributed to that Colombian football experienced great growth.
The Chilean league is not the best, but it has very good and strong teams playing in the final stages of international tournaments. Their team also grew because most of their players left, such as goalkeeper Christiane Endler and many other role models who played abroad and returned to their country to help grow. The league is not the most professional, but there is a bigger task at the national team level.
Also in Argentina. His tournament is already professional, but there are still certain shortcomings. However, your choice is a separate case. This is their second consecutive world championship and they are Pan American runners-up. All of this speaks for a development that dates back years. What we couldn’t achieve. It all ended when we culminated in 2005 with the Bolivarian Medal. He kept that medal and never used that moment to grow the sport. A lot of players at the time told me that they went to the convention, took a picture there, ended up with that, and they had to keep the medal. It’s been about 18 years now. Of this selection, Miryan Tristán (Alianza Lima) and Connie Puerta, who just signed with Killas FC, are the only survivors playing in the Women’s League; Then Adriana Dávila will direct and Lorena Cortez will act. But look how long it took for these players to have a decent championship, a stable championship and a chance to prove themselves through all the years they didn’t make it.
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Even if we won’t be at the next World Cup, at what level is this tournament important and what aspects can be considered in the development of women’s football in Peru?
Even though we didn’t attend any of the editions, I think it’s important because we have to look around. Don’t just look at the countries in the region, because they’re almost as underdeveloped as we are; are there with certain differences. But we have to look further. Point out how you work in Europe or the United States where football is not for men but for women.
The World Cup is a huge window, not only for the players but also for the brands. I know this is a deal. So you have to look at football as a product that can bear fruit in the long term. As you work, remember that in the medium term you will get the profit of these years. See what we can replicate. I’m not saying that we will organize a World Cup. It’s not far either, because we’ve done Pan Americans before. We have to start copying how they work in advertising, in organization (…).
On this point, and as a mea culpa, I remember what coach Emily Lima said in her last conference (“I expected to see a fuller audience, that’s also part of the progress of Peruvian football”), which is a portrait of what happened to women’s football
It’s a portrait of who we are when it comes to women’s football: a country that doesn’t believe in, support or care for its women footballers. It is a shame for me that she finds a room practically empty and the FPF does not have enough capacity to travel to two or three more journalists. Imagine the FPF’s reputation among its women soccer players, who will also represent the country.
If they’re holding a conference to announce the men’s roster and this room is full, why don’t half of those who look at the men’s roster see the women’s roster? It’s part of that, the job of the FPF press and marketing people who need to have that skill in order to recruit new staff. When the national team coach holds a conference, it’s because she’s going to say something important. But you must give it meaning through actions. For me, as a journalist specializing in women’s football, it was embarrassing to see an almost empty auditorium. And I also do a mea culpa because I had some commitments to fulfill. So in all of this we are below the other countries in the region. Many years have passed and no significant progress can be seen in this area either.