Stories From the Road || Palestine

Welcome to Stories From the Road, our latest blog series where we share highlights from the many camps we host around the world! These football camps deliver training in sport, empowerment and leadership in partnership with existing local teams and organizations that focus on sports development, education, health, community, and empowerment for girls and women. Check out some highlights from our latest camp below!

MARCH 9: PALESTINE

In the week surrounding International Women’s Day, we teamed up with V and V Advertising to host a football clinic in Palestine. Click the images below to see the gallery and check out even more photos on our Facebook Page.

Stay tuned for more stories from the road as we continue to host camps for #AnyGirlAnywhere and support partners and communities on their quest for opportunity, equality and respect. Nothing more, nothing less.

#AnyGirlAnywhere

Every year on March 8th, women everywhere are celebrated for their social, economic, cultural and political achievements during International Women’s Day. It is an annual reminder of how far women have come in the fight for gender parity and how long of a road still lies ahead of us.

In June, the FIFA Women’s World Cup kicks off in France and elite female footballers will grace our TV screens for a short but sweet four weeks. But day in, day out, women and girls from every country, ethnicity, religion, and background, play, coach, referee and work in football - despite all the many barriers they face.

We believe that any girl, anywhere has the right to opportunity, equality and respect.

Nothing more, nothing less. 

With this in mind, our 2019 campaign was born: Any Girl Anywhere

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We believe that:

  • Any girl anywhere should be able to play, without traveling too far, nor paying too much.

  • Any girl anywhere should be supported to be the best player, coach, referee, administrator or journalist she can be.

  • Any girl anywhere should access quality training facilities, kit, pitches, coaches and referees. She is not an afterthought.

  • Any girl anywhere should be able to imagine herself working in football with a seat at the table.

  • Any girl anywhere should feel valued and her coaches, teachers and the media should treat her with respect.

We are delighted to partner with incredible organisations and inspirational individuals around the world, all united by a desire to create a world where #AnyGirlAnywhere can play to the best of their abilities, free from harassment.

So what future do you want for #AnyGirlAnywhere?

Find us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook and join the conversation!

Stories From the Road || Bangalore

In addition to our two World Record matches, we also regularly host football camps that deliver training in sport, empowerment and leadership in partnership with existing local teams and organizations that focus on sports development, education, health, community, and empowerment for girls and women. Check out some highlights from our latest camp below!

February 27: Bangalore, India

We were very excited to team up with Pass Collective and Shining Stars FC to host the AFC Women’s Day Equal Playing Field Football Festival.

Pass Collective is a social enterprise whose strives to nurture inclusive development and social equity through creative intelligence. Their work supports the Shining Stars Football Club and their mission to empower young people through football.

We were fortunate to link up with their founder, Shaona who coordinated the festival alongside the Karnakata State Football Association to honor AIFF’s (All Indian Football Federation) celebration of AFC’s Women’s Day. It was a natural fit!

On the pitch, players had the opportunity to develop agility, fitness and football skills with top level coaches.

Station 1 - Tanvie Hans
An ex-Tottenham and Fulham Ladies Footballer and an FA Level-1 certified coach.

Station 2 - Amoolya Kamal
An international level footballer who represented India in the 2014 Asian Games. She currently plays for South United Football Club and is an AFC C-License coach.

Station 3 - Lilly Thomas
An ultramarathon runner, state level footballer and futsaller, an advocate for enhancing mental health through sport and an AIFF D-License coach.

Station 4 - Paromita Sit
A former international footballer, current player for SUFC and AFC C-License holder.

Station 5 - Crystal Ann Pinto
Our goalkeeper coach for the camp who recently represented Karnataka in the senior nationals camp.

Thank you to ALL of the other female leaders who helped us during this event!

Stay tuned for more stories from the road as we continue to host camps for #AnyGirlAnywhere and support partners on their quest for opportunity, equality and respect. Nothing more, nothing less.

Ambassador of the Month: Susie Petruccelli

One of our goals at Equal Playing Field is to be connectors of individuals and organizations who are on similar quests to bring opportunity, equality, and respect to women’s football.

As connectors, we’re fortunate to meet a lot of really amazing people who go on to share our mission with their communities! We like to think of these people as unofficial ambassadors of Equal Playing Field and we’re excited to share their stories with you all.

First up? Susie DeLellis Petruccelli who was born and raised in Southern California, went to college at Harvard and now lives in New York.

How long have you been involved in football?

I started playing soccer when I was five on a coed AYSO team called the Little Rascals in my home town of South Pasadena.  Soccer got hold of my heart and never let go.  After the first years of AYSO, my twin sister and I played club, high school, ODP and then at Harvard.

Becoming aware of the dearth of athletic opportunities for girls before Title IX in the US, and still around the world, I got back into soccer and women’s sports history after a career in technology and many years raising a family, by beginning work on a book called Title IX and Tampons.  I entered the sport for development world by supporting amazing organizations like the Women’s Sports Foundation, Coaches Across Continents and the Global Goals World Cup.  

I’m currently producing a documentary (Warriors of a Beautiful Game) with Kely Nascimento about women’s football which will be dovetailed by a project (Warrior Women of Football) to support grassroots organizations that are using football as a tool to help girls around the world. 

How did you get involved with, or first hear about, Equal Playing Field?

I first heard about Equal Playing Field on Twitter.  I heard that a group of women were climbing Kilimanjaro to play the highest elevation soccer game ever played.  I was inspired and totally jealous.  :)  I wished I was on that expedition!  Then I heard that they were doing the same thing at the Dead Sea and I was impressed again and even more inspired.  It really is such a beautiful metaphor for how far women will go to play the game we love.  Eventually we were connected with Laura (EPF co-founder) and Amirose (producer of the documentary film Equal Playing Field, to be launched in 2019).  My brother Tom and I are now Executive Producers in the Equal Playing Field documentary and we can’t wait to see the whole story of the two expeditions and all of the amazing and brave people who persevered to break the two world records.  I was able to participate after all in this small way.

Kely and I are also excited to be supporting the upcoming Festival of Football in Lyon in June.  It’s a brilliant opportunity to bring supporters of women’s football together from around the world and celebrate how far we’ve come, how bright our future is and also break another world record.  

How do you try to level the playing field in your community?

I try to level the playing field in my own environment and also by keeping my eyes and ears (and Twitter @sooozie) open for inequalities that I may not have seen or heard about yet.  Everywhere we go we see barriers and inequalities unique to specific communities.  We want to continue to share these stories and support leaders in these areas. 

We’re excited to have Susie join us on our quest for a third world record this summer at the Festival of Football in #France2019! Give @sooozie a follow on Twitter to stay in touch with this changemaker and EPF supporter!

Words of Inspiration from 10 Friends in 2018!

Welcome to our very own #EPFballdrop!

Over the final days of 2018, we highlighted the words of 10 amazing friends we hung out with this year on our Instagram page (give us a follow!)... in no particular order because, let's be real, they're equally awesome women, allies or change-makers in their communities. In case you missed it, we brought it to our blog as well. We hope their words inspire you as you head into a new year!

6️⃣ 6 in our #EPFballdrop is Sally Roberts of Wrestle Like a Girl ➡@sallyrobertswrestles @wrestlelikeagirl_ . Keep following along as we close out the year by highlighting the words of 10 amazing friends we hung out with this year (in no particular order).

26 Likes, 0 Comments - Equal Playing Field � (@equalplayingfieldinitiative) on Instagram: "6️⃣ 6 in our #EPFballdrop is Sally Roberts of Wrestle Like a Girl ➡@sallyrobertswrestles..."

5 in our #EPFballdrop is Caitlin Fisher of FIFPro World Players' Union. . Keep following along as we close out the year by highlighting the words of 10 amazing friends we hung out with this year (in no particular order).

23 Likes, 0 Comments - Equal Playing Field (@equalplayingfieldinitiative) on Instagram: "5 in our #EPFballdrop is Caitlin Fisher of FIFPro World Players' Union. . Keep following along as..."

4️⃣ in our #EPFballdrop is Hudson Taylor of Athlete Ally. ➡@hudsonism @athleteally . Keep following along as we close out the year by highlighting the words of 10 amazing friends we hung out with this year (in no particular order).

42 Likes, 2 Comments - Equal Playing Field (@equalplayingfieldinitiative) on Instagram: "4️⃣ in our #EPFballdrop is Hudson Taylor of Athlete Ally. ➡@hudsonism @athleteally . Keep following..."

3️⃣ in our #EPFballdrop is Mary Harvey, former USWNT goalkeeper, WWC and Olympic winner and current human rights advocate. . Keep following along as we close out the year by highlighting the words of 10 amazing friends we hung out with this year (in no particular order).

35 Likes, 2 Comments - Equal Playing Field (@equalplayingfieldinitiative) on Instagram: "3️⃣ in our #EPFballdrop is Mary Harvey, former USWNT goalkeeper, WWC and Olympic winner and current..."

2️⃣ in our #EPFballdrop is Nicole Rodriguez of the Puerto Rico women's national team. . Keep following along as we close out the year by highlighting the words of 10 amazing friends we hung out with this year (in no particular order).

21 Likes, 0 Comments - Equal Playing Field (@equalplayingfieldinitiative) on Instagram: "2️⃣ in our #EPFballdrop is Nicole Rodriguez of the Puerto Rico women's national team. . Keep..."

Follow along