FOR INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY...

Even in a country as football-mad as Turkey, the idea of women playing the beautiful game is as foreign as cricket or curling.

A celebrity match to mark International Women’s Day, March 8, aims to change that perception and break down social and financial barriers to women’s participation in the sport.

“People don’t even think such a thing exists,” said Kezban Gülşen, who has played football for the last nine years on Gazi University’s women’s team.

“The other day, someone asked me what kind of sports I play, and I said he wouldn’t believe me if I told him,” Gülşen told the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review. “He said he certainly would, but when I gave my answer, he started laughing.”

Although football is the most popular sport in Turkey, there is a major lack of knowledge about the existence of women’s football, much less its teams and leagues.

“Although not many people are aware of it, the number of players has increased a lot in the past few years,” Cemile Timur, the head coach of the Hakkari Gücü women’s football team, told the Daily News. “In the beginning, we had no audience, but now many people in the city have started following our games.”

No sponsorship

The number of female football players and women’s football teams has indeed increased in recent years. There are currently 1,300 licensed players playing for 42 teams registered under Turkey’s three women’s football leagues, none of which are professional.

“We are trying our best to tell people about women’s football,” said Ersin Alankaya from the Turkish Football Federation’s development department. “The March 8 event is just one of [these efforts]; we have many events like this. Turkey has great potential for the growth of women’s football and we are doing our best.”

Many people in Turkey, however, still see women’s football as a waste of time. Yet what has kept the sport from growing: Is it that women play bad football, or that they lack the necessary financial support and face many social barriers to playing?

According to Murat Ülkü, the head coach of the Ataşehir women’s football team, financial difficulties are a crucial issue. “The federation doesn’t do anything serious to support women’s football,” Ülkü told the Daily News. “Turkey has a women’s league because Europe’s UEFA has given our federation a budget to establish one. But still there is no sponsorship system for women’s teams. We have to get by on our own.”

“How do they expect teams to survive without sponsors? How do they expect us to raise the standards?” he said. “We have a men’s league worth $321 million but there is no publicity for the women’s teams.”

Gazi University player Gülşen agrees. “Sponsorship is just one of the issues. There is much more work to be done,” she said. “They need to train women to be head coaches, for example.”

When it comes to social limitations, though, Ülkü is more positive. “Before, people thought it wasn’t suitable for girls,” he said. “But when they learn that there is a future in it, families agree to send their daughters to play.”

Media and women’s sports

Although the ranks of female athletes have increased in recent years, Turkish media coverage of their teams is still lacking, according to Canan Koca, an academic from Hacettepe University who specializes in gender and sports.

“We made an analysis of women’s sports coverage in the Turkish mass media – outside of the Olympics – and the result was 2.5 percent. This means no more than three stories out of 100 are about women,” Koca told the Daily News. “And that doesn’t necessarily mean that all those news stories are about the sports themselves. There is also much news coverage directly about the players’ gender and bodies.”

When it comes to football specifically, Koca said there is almost no information about or coverage of women playing the sport. “Women’s football is just starting up now in Turkey,” she said. “There is also no academic research about it.”

Although the sports pages in Turkish newspapers are dominated by men, there are a few female columnists. “Women can watch and support football, but I think they shouldn’t play football at all,” Feryal Pere, a female writer from daily Radikal, told the Daily News. “I don’t like how it looks. It actually looks funny to me.”

“Those days are long behind [us]. In the past, people thought football players were all short with bowed legs, but look at the women players now; they have such nice looks,” Banu Yelkovan, a female sports columnist for Radikal, told the Daily News. “I think women should play football and own it, too. In fact, they should own not just football, but all sports. Unfortunately, we are being directed toward other things as if sports don’t exist in our genes. Football is an area of struggle for women.”

According to Yelkovan, outreach efforts should be made to mothers in order to attract larger audiences and more players: “If mothers know that there is no danger involved, they will send their kids to the stadiums.”

Women’s football around the world

Although women’s football is just starting to gain popularity in Turkey, it is already popular in other countries, including the United States, Germany, Brazil and Norway.

In the U.S., in fact, unlike in most soccer-playing nations, the most interest in football has been shown toward women playing the sport. In 1999 and 2003, the United States won the FIFA Women’s World Cup and ranked as one of the best national teams in the world.

In Germany, the first women’s league was established in 1971; there are currently almost 7,000 women’s teams in the country, with more than a million players.

In Brazil, women’s football is also becoming quite popular, especially with the national women’s team winning first place at the inaugural women’s football world championships in 1991. Famous Brazilian player Marta Vieira da Silva has been crowned the FIFA Women’s World Player of the Year every year between 2006 and 2009.

TURKISH DAILY NEWS