Aline Zeler: Women’s football is not growing everywhere

With the 2022 Women’s EUROs still fresh in the mind, the growth of women’s football is gathering pace.

EURO 2022 was watched by some 365 million people globally, there is a hope that women’s football is finally on its way to support and coverage equality with the men’s game.

Aline Zeler,  former captain of the Belgian Women’s team, believes that there is still a way to go for many countries including those with a rich heritage in the men’s game.

Zeler, is the most capped Belgian women’s player with 111 caps across a career spanning 14 years, during which she also represented four different domestic teams including PSV and Anderlecht.

Challenges that many might think consigned to the history books for women’s players continue to pervade football in Belgium, with the game almost entirely amateur and only a handful of professional players leaving Belgium a decade or so behind some of its major international competitors.

The vast majority of club and international players continue to have to balance the needs of full-time jobs during the day with training in the evening and fixtures at weekends .

Zeler explained: “It was a very big sacrifice everyday, to become athletes, everybody tried to do their best. We don’t have the same money as the men and so I trained every evening and was trusted to become the captain of the national team.

“It was a big frustration because for the men, they received a lot more support. We have to think twice before making any decisions, so it was a big difference.

“For some, this balancing act could not be sustained and the domestic Belgium league suffered a drain of talented players to leagues where the financial rewards and infrastructure were much greater.

"We only have one or two professional players in Belgium but they do not earn a lot. So many players leave Belgium but it’s not easy to leave their family.

“We have gone from 20,000 female players in 2014 to 40,000 now and it is important that football opens its doors to everyone. It’s changing but perhaps too slowly.”

Although the global expanse of the women’s game is an exciting development, with the upcoming Women’s World Cup being held in Australia and New Zealand, for teams like Belgium, this also poses a challenge.

Zeler expressed reservations over the expense of tournaments like these on smaller teams. She added: “EURO 2022 in England was a big success both on the field and on TV but now so much more needs to be done.

“Now the next generation are receiving ore facilities and support, so in five years, hopefully they can become professional too.”

However, Zeler also sees a stark difference in the media perceptions of the men’s and women’s games, and the attitude that the men’s players are “untouchable” is absent in the women’s game.

The differences can also be seen in the marketing of the men’s and women’s game raising another doubt in Zeler’s mind about the suitability of the World Cup being held far away from the majority of the countries taking part. 

With different budgets, it raises concerns over the likelihood of fans travelling to watch the tournament.

She added: “It’s a big discussion because for many teams the distance is a very big problem, the (travel) tickets are so expensive.

“It’s not always the same fans who follow men’s football who follow the women’s games but perhaps people can travel there and make it a vacation as well.

“If the England coach (Sarina Wiegman) stays, I think they have a good chance to win but America will also do very well. For each team, you have to look into the future, see how many games players have played and who is fit and in form. It will be a factor and some countries are at a different level of intensity in domestic competition.”

Now retired from football, Zeler is looking to get a new role in coaching, whether that is in her homeland or abroad, having already coached the Belgium U16s and U19 as well as the PSV Eindhoven U23s.

Her influence on women’s sport in Belgium endures, as the role of Head of Female Sports at ‘Talent Agency’.

She continues to exert a significant influence over the game, seeking to improve girls’ sporting experiences, increasing their opportunities through enhanced representation and management, and to improve their training.

Encouragingly, she is convinced of the huge potential in the abundance of young talent Belgium have across a variety of sports.

She explained: “Moving from playing to the agency was quite difficult – you miss the adrenaline of competition, the supporters and the joy of playing and scoring goals. But I had to stop because my body told me I had to, so now I play sport without injury.

“Now, I am chief of the female department and I want to find sponsorships for athletes so that they can focus on training and not on funding.

“As well as football, we support women in rugby, basketball and hockey and we have some good players. The philosophy of the agency is to ensure the players are well-prepared and supported, but there is a long way to go.”

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