An interview with Dani Peleva, the CEO of Franchise Fame and grassroots footballer, fighting sexist stereotypes one goal at a time.
By Catherine Gregson
On the 31st of July 2022 the Lionesses brought football home for England, after the men’s team were defeated in the Euro finals last year. This comes after 56 years of ‘hurt’; England last won a major tournament – the Football World Cup – in 1966. This is an amazing achievement for women, many were emotional as they watched the Lionesses dance, celebrating winning, despite the stigma set against them. Many young girls will have sat, glued to their screens watching these role models, showing them that they can achieve anything. It will have inspired many.
The Lionesses broke records in the final, beating Germany for the most goals scored at a UEFA Women’s European Championship by a team (22 goals). They also broke the record for the highest margin of a victory in a UEFA Women’s European Championship Finals football match, in their 8-0 result against Norway. The record for the largest crowd gathering across any women’s or men’s European final (or any women’s international game in history) was broken, with 87,192 people attending the final. Most importantly, they beat the record for the most-watched female football match in British history, with 17.4 million television viewers. The Women’s Euros has turned the tide in attitudes towards female football in the UK – it has demonstrated what women are capable of.
As seen with the last Women’s World Cup, tournaments like these always seem to be an excuse for some men to take to social media platforms to spread sexist hatred. The hashtag ‘#whocares’ was circulated on twitter during the Euros. Men used this hashtag to spread sexist comments about the games, saying things such as: “Media in Sweden are seriously calling women’s football team the real national team #feminismgonewrong #whocares #dykes”, “why are talksport talking about women’s football #whocares”, “One thing that really annoys me is when there’s women’s football stories on bbc sport, should be separate #whocares”.
Social media will always provide a means for misogynistic comments by men that hide behind screens and out pour statements they may be too afraid to say out loud. Research collated by German broadcasters ARD and NDR during the Women’s Euros found that sexist comments made towards female footballers on social media peaked during the Euros, and players have claimed they were humiliated online. Some German female footballers claimed they were objectified by a few spectators, as they called out taunts to the players on the pitch.
The Press and Journal newspaper investigated sexism in women’s football in early 2022. They collected data from 119 players, officials, and football fans from north and north-east Scotland. They found that more than 70% of participants had experienced sexism, 67% of participants decided to not take action against the sexism, since it’s so normalised and 54% of respondents said that the football industry doesn’t take enough action to combat sexism. These damning statistics may be from a small sample size (and it was only conducted in northern Scotland) however, if this is a display of the issue in northern Scotland, then this is an important indicator of the scale of the problem in the UK as a whole.
During the Euros, Swedish players claimed that UEFA were putting less resources into the Women’s tournament compared to the one used during the men’s Euros in 2021, with some players even stating that UEFA were using 50 percent less cameras to monitor VAR decisions. Despite this, UEFA claimed that they had more cameras at the Women’s Euros than had used for the Euros the previous summer.
Many brands have taken the opportunity of the Euros to promote and release feminist campaigns for women’s sport. One key example of this is Adidas’s ‘Pitch, Please’. This campaign was launched in July, with the hopes of improving pitch access for women and non-binary players. Women can often struggle to access pitches and training facilities, due to block bookings being made by men’s football teams. Another issue is that many football clubs do not have sanitary waste disposal bins in their bathrooms, meaning these areas are not inclusive to women. To help improve these issues, ‘Pitch, Please’ allowed women to book football pitches and use them, for free. The campaign ran throughout July, where women just had to WhatsApp 07874089145 to book a pitch or ask them to provide sanitary bins in a club. This campaign has helped to raise awareness of the lack of inclusivity women can often be faced with within football. Women being able to book pitches is a major issue and can deter women from pursuing football. Adidas have paved the way to improve this problem.
To explore this further and understand the scale of the issue I interviewed Dani Peleva, the founder and CEO of Franchise Fame, managing director of Local Fame and trustee for The Huracan Foundation (a football and education charity, helping young people). Dani has built a successful career for herself, having written an Amazon bestselling book, and she helps people to successfully market their businesses. However, amongst all the business, Dani dedicates time to the pitch each week, for her physical and mental health – and to smash stereotypes. She plays for the New London Lionesses FC, along with around 70 other women. Dani told me being part of the team has been a good way for her to “challenge herself” and she’s really enjoyed the five years she’s been in the club so far. She gave insight into the benefits of being part of a female team, where you all have the same goal and want to help each other to achieve it: “I made a lot of friendships, friendships that stay forever. The essence of the sport is team play. It’s a team game, you need to support your teammates. You become one on the pitch and you go through challenges and tough times, and you lose together: and that puts you together. But also, in the moments of sheer joy, when you actually win a game, that also puts you closer to those teammates, as well as, traveling together as a club, wearing the same jerseys… I think that’s brilliant. It’s just that sense of togetherness”. Dani also stressed the importance of the life skills football teaches people, “fair play, respect, how to conduct yourself in a professional manner, consistency, perseverance… a lot of values that you can learn and apply in your personal and professional life too.”
Originally from Bulgaria, Dani has faced sexism in football in two different countries: “I grew up in Bulgaria where football was the primary sport, but it was always regarded as a guy sport. So, there weren’t many girls that would want to even watch. I was one of the few that was running around with the boys and trying to kick a ball. I was always being reprimanded by my parents, or by people on the street, ‘why are you acting boyish? Why are you playing this boys game?’ There weren’t even clubs or training practices for women back there.” Dani told me she was only able to fulfill her dream of playing football seriously when she moved to the UK and started playing at the age of 29.
I asked Dani how she manages to fit football around her busy schedule and she said, “I make time for the important stuff in life. There have been many parallels, football and business can be very similar because you want to win. You want to achieve; you want to stay consistent. Being committed to football and wellness also translates into being committed and excelling at work as well, exceeding expectations. Those are intrinsically connected for me: if I don’t play, and I don’t exercise, my output at work is not that good. I vent out on the pitch. The pitch is my safe vision: it’s a place where I can stop thinking about the projects, client accounts, finance, recruitment… when I go there, it’s 90 minutes where I can empty my head and just think about scoring a goal and playing ball, which is incredibly liberating.”
I then asked Dani about whether she had personally experienced any sexism since playing football. She told me that when she is on the pitch with male footballers, sexism can be commonplace: sometimes it can be disguised as ‘banter’, and sometimes it results in the female players being objectified by them. Dani mentioned she’d had comments about “how short my shorts are”. This is unfortunately not uncommon. A poll conducted by BT Sport in 2017 showed that 67% of elite female athletes in the UK felt that they had been judged for how they look. Dani echoed this, “Every Wednesday we train with the club in a big pitch where other teams play at the same time, and there are guys… when we are doing laps and warming up, you can hear them making comments. I’m so used to it by now… but it shouldn’t happen… we shouldn’t be used to it in the first place”. Dani even told me that on occasions, “I’m the only woman on the pitch… There have been cases where guys refuse to come and play just because there’s a woman on the pitch. Their brain would not allow them to actually believe a woman can be better in anything, especially football.” Despite this, she told me how she proves them wrong and tries to show them what women are capable of. “You score a few great goals and then you can see the way their face changes, they’re like ‘oh, actually she can play’, ‘oh, better than me’.” Dani is defying sexist expectations weekly on the pitch, proving to men that she is equally, if not more, capable than some of them. She is, hopefully, changing the minds of men who previously didn’t challenge ingrained sexism. With any luck, these men go on to tell their male friends and colleagues: women score too.
With reference to the Women’s Euros Dani said she heard men say things like “‘why would I even bother watching this?’, ‘it’s a copycat version of normal football’, ‘this is not real football… the only good thing to see is the length of their legs’”. To women playing football, or who are passionate about watching it, she said to remember, “You can’t change some people. I think one by one, if you start engaging and arousing arguments you could hurt yourself, I would say just protect your energy. Actions speak louder than words: if someone you play with looks like they are a sexist person, the best thing to shut them down is to show them how good you are. Learn how to not listen and don’t let it affect your game. Just keep playing.”
When discussing the wider impact of the Lionesses winning the Euros Dani said, it’s “proved a big point because the guys haven’t been able to do it for what? More than 50 years. A lot more men are going to be like, ‘oh actually women can play football too’ or are not going to be as surprised to see a woman on the pitch. I think now, more and more guys are going to start to accept the fact that it’s a woman’s sport, as well as a man’s sport. More parents are going to have to be more accepting and tolerant for their little girls to have an interest in football, and even sign them up to train.” Dani also mentioned the positive impact on young boys, “I saw little boys cheering and watching the football games…it’s the change we want to see now because they can think ‘it’s fine for her to love football as much as I do’”.
Dani told me how lucky she felt, when she moved to the UK, “England is where football was born”. Compared to other countries, the UK has less sexism when it comes to football, “but there’s still a long way to go”. She thinks that “big campaigns, big players, big brands and events should be marketed to blow the trumpet”, so people get used to seeing women play football and slowly begin to disassociate it with being a ‘men’s game’. Furthermore, she thinks that women and men should play in the same stadiums, since in the UK, women’s teams are often made to play in separate stadiums. For example, Arsenal women don’t play in the Arsenal stadium. Dani asked, “Why do they not have access to the same resources… clearly, they play in smaller stadiums… tickets are much cheaper. Change should happen on those levels too.” Another way of dismantling sexism for women’s football is mixed team games. Dani mentioned that “there are apps such as Footy Addicts… [where] you can join and find a game near you… including mixed games. There are Para Leagues now, they’ve recently introduced a mixed league as well. The concept of mixing the game and engaging more men is a way forward.”. Dani also commented on the fact that more women could be encouraged into football if there were government grants to help local teams, because a lot are self-funded. It’s much harder to get someone to sponsor a women’s football club, than it is for a men’s and teams need funding.
Despite all the sexism mentioned in this article, what shines through it all is the men who help female footballers achieve their dreams. Dani talked about how “our coaches have always been men. They’ve always been incredibly supportive and incredibly encouraging. There’s a lot of men that actually support women and are feminists. They’re not being paid for this. Our coaches are completely voluntary. They’re not getting a salary or anything, and they still help us. They all have full-time jobs, but they’ll still spend hours of their spare time teaching us. These people should be given credit. They’re part of the help. Hopefully they speak to their friends and change their friends’ perspectives. We can’t have just half the population supporting women’s football”. Dani said that eradicating sexism in football is “a process, I’m positive about it. It’s just not as quick as I’d like it to be, as with most things in sexism.”
Dani’s advice for women considering getting into football is to “just do it”. She commented on how she wished she had the ability to sign up earlier, so the women that live in the UK that have this opportunity are extremely privileged and should grab it with both hands. There are clubs in the UK that will let players of any ability and level join. “Just try it, it’s a lot of fun, you’ll fall in love with the game… if you like watching football, chances are that you’re going to enjoy playing it too”.
There’s a long way to go, in order for sexism to be eradicated in football. There needs to be sanitary bins in every female toilet at every football stadium, no taunting players or female medics that run onto the pitch to help players, no social media slander towards women’s football, equal opportunities/ facilities/ equipment for female footballers, equal media and television coverage of women’s games etc… But all of this is possible, the UK’s attitude has improved greatly since the first women’s international game in 1972. This summer, the Lionesses roared. Let that signal that it’s time for sexist stereotypes to end.
Follow Dani on:
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dani.peleva
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dani-peleva/
Dani plays for https://www.newlondonlionessesfc.com/
- Find a football team near you: https://find.englandfootball.com/
- Find out how and where you can support women’s football: https://www.thefa.com/womens-girls-football/leagues-and-competitions
- Support the #hergametoo campaign: https://www.hergametoo.co.uk/football
- Women in Football: https://www.womeninfootball.co.uk/
