Tommy Martin: Time football turned new-found spirit of activism towards support of all women?

Doing the right thing by women’s football is expected now, thankfully. But how often the game does right by women in general?

Alex Iwobi (L) and Seamus Coleman of Everton take a knee in support of the Black Lives Matter movement. Coleman played a key role in the deal that made the FAI the latest national soccer association to pay its men’s and women’s senior squads equal match fees. Picture: Marc Atkins/Getty

It's common these days for footballers to do the right thing. They take the knee against racism and campaign to feed hungry children. They wear rainbow laces in support of LGBTQ+ rights and dedicate time and wealth towards worthwhile charities. Many of them have a conscience to match their influence.

Just this week, Republic of Ireland captain Seamus Coleman helped negotiate the deal that made the FAI the latest national soccer association to pay its men’s and women’s senior squads equal match fees. The men agreed to forgo a few bob of their €2,500-per-game fee to allow the hard-up association to make the sums work.

Good on them, even if the whole thing seems a no-brainer and the amounts involved are relatively small. Still, comments from FAI chief executive Jonathan Hill suggested Coleman had to argue the point to get the deal done.

“Séamus used the phrase ‘we should be doing this because it is the right thing to do,’” said Hill. “I completely agree with him. It is the right thing for any modern inclusive sports organisation to do.”

Doing the right thing by women’s football is expected now, thankfully. But how often does the game do right by women in general? A quick digest of some recent stories:

Last week the Manchester City defender Bernard Mendy was charged by Cheshire police with four counts of rape and one count of sexual assault. Mendy was arrested last November and has been under police investigation since. As Daniel Taylor of The Athletic has pointed out, normal practice for an employer would be to suspend an employee on full salary while the investigation is being carried out.

Mendy, however, played 18 times for City in the intervening months, picking up a Premier League winners medal and turning out as recently as the season opener at Tottenham on August 15.

On Tuesday, the entire board of KSÍ, the Icelandic football association, resigned after it emerged that they had covered up alleged sexual assault by a national team player. Thorhildur Gyda Arnarsdottir accused the player of grabbing her by the crotch and the neck, then assaulting her. Arnarsdottir claimed that a lawyer hired by the national team offered her compensation in exchange for dropping the charges and signing a confidentiality agreement. She also said she was aware of complaints by at least six other women against national team players.

Last week, Gudni Bergsson, the president of the KSÍ, denied ever having received any formal or informal complaints of sexual violence against one of their players. Bergsson and his board were forced to resign when Arnarsdottir went public a day later in an interview with the state broadcaster.

Cristiano Ronaldo returned to Manchester United last week, as you may have heard. Pundits gushed about his monumental achievements in the game and the personal qualities he would bring to the Old Trafford dressing room.

With less fanfare, some media also mentioned the ongoing legal battle concerning the allegation of rape against Ronaldo, which is currently the subject of a civil case filed by the woman, Kathryn Mayorga. She alleges a rape took place in Las Vegas in June 2009.

The story came to light in September 2018, when the German news magazine Der Spiegel published legal documents in which Ronaldo is quoted as saying “she said no and stop several times” during sex. Ronaldo strongly denied the allegations, which he described as “fake news.”

Juventus, his club at the time, backed the player.

“Cristiano Ronaldo has shown in recent months his great professionalism and dedication, which is appreciated by everyone at Juventus,” the club tweeted. “The events allegedly dating back to almost 10 years ago do not change this opinion, which is shared by anyone who has come into contact with this great champion.”

In 2019, Las Vegas prosecutors said that Ronaldo would not face charges, as the case “could not be proven beyond reasonable doubt.”

Mayorga’s civil case continues.

On his return to Manchester, Ronaldo’s former United team-mate and new manager, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, described him as a “great player and a great human being.”

On Tuesday, Bohemians, to their credit, issued a statement condemning what it described as “misogynistic and sexist” chants directed at the girlfriend of former Bohs player Danny Mandroiu, who played for his current team, Shamrock Rovers, in Sunday’s Dublin derby between the clubs.

Bohemians said they had received “justified complaints from members…This is not the image of the club we want portrayed to current and potential new supporters, particularly women and girls.”

In July, England progressed to the final of Euro 2020. With grim inevitability, the Euros provoked a spike in UK cases of domestic abuse, backing up academic evidence from previous tournaments which suggested reported incidents rose sharply whether England won or lost a game. While campaigners point out that football and the related alcohol consumption do not cause domestic violence, they are regarded as catalysts for instances of abusive behaviour.

A snapshot: Unconnected, disparate stories from various levels of the game that unite towards a common theme.

With its tendency to whitewash allegations of sexual violence perpetrated by valuable playing assets, dismissing the claims of victims, and the casual misogyny within its sub-culture, the perception emerges that football remains a cold climate for women.

Big, broad problems that go far beyond football. But that hasn’t stopped activism against racism, poverty and other forms of discrimination. Imagine the big names of the game promoting education on sexual consent, taking abusive tweeters to task or endorsing campaigns against domestic violence.

Those campaigns exist. Football United Against Domestic Violence, run in the UK by the charity Women’s Aid, receives comparatively little coverage despite the game’s role as a trigger for many abusers. In 2020 Fifa, the European Commission, and the WHO launched #SafeHome, using football to support women and children at risk of domestic violence.

Its most high-profile ambassadors were Alvaro Arbeloa and David James.

Football has shown the power it has to make people do the right thing. Marcus Rashford faced down a government. This week, Seamus Coleman and his Ireland team-mates made a small gesture towards the equality of their female equivalents.

But when the game is still a safe house for misogyny, how soon will it turn its new-found spirit of activism in support of all women?